Come Full Circle
by Airyo
Summary: It's been a while. Outside these walls, she had learned to hold her head high as she walked, but the home of her earlier self folded around her like too thick a blanket and Hinata found herself unconsciously lowering her gaze. ItaHina, Complete
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COME FULL CIRCLE

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By Airyo

AN: Rookie 9 are 19, Sasuke is a Konoha shinobi, and Gaara was captured and successfully revived.

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"Get up, Hinata."

Sweat beaded down her forehead, making the dust stick uncomfortably to her skin. The young girl curled her slim legs, gingerly rising to her feet. The sun beat harshly on her black hair and she felt as if its rays burned straight to her skull.

"Again."

Chakra flared at her fingertips and they rushed forward. She dodged his first attack, his second, third, and pivoted on the ball of her foot to pierce his defense with a sharp, snapping kick. His outline flickered, and Hinata found herself gasping for breath, yet again on the ground.

"Again."

Hinata flipped to her feet and barely avoided his fist. She dropped to her palms, black cloak swirling about her limbs as she whipped into a flurry of combinations that he himself had taught her. He evaded them smoothly, as Hinata had expected. But then she suddenly kicked up, outside the pattern, vaulting her body forward into a midair roundhouse kick that was followed immediately by a hard elbow strike.

He was forced to block.

All motion in the forest clearing ceased. The wind stirred by their battle slowly stilled. Several flame-hued leaves fluttered lazily to the ground, buoyed by the breeze. As the dust settled with the leaves, Itachi stepped back, allowing the girl to lower her arm. Approval glinted in his eyes.

"Your speed has increased."

A small blush darkened the sun's flush on Hinata's cheeks and she bowed in acknowledgment of the rare compliment. The Uchiha, who appeared as if he hadn't been training for several hours under the late summer sun in dark clothing, nodded tersely and retreated to the shade of a nearby oak. Kisame was already seated there, leaning comfortably against his enormous weapon. Their expectant eyes made Hinata cringe; she still had to train even more in this heat, and in this dark, cumbersome cloak that seemed to devour the warm rays like Naruto devoured ramen. Shaking her head of all distractions, as training this way would accustom her body to fighting in less than optimal conditions, Hinata slipped into her fluid taijutsu katas with a small sigh.

Surprisingly enough, silence held only for a few minutes for the usually taciturn group.

"There has been a development in our objective," Itachi began, his Sharingan-less eyes unreadable in the dark shade.

"Raise your right arm a little more," Kisame told Hinata in the small pause of his partner's sentence. The girl complied and Itachi continued, knowing that the both of them were listening.

"Uzumaki is leaving the walls of Konoha for a prolonged mission within a week." As he revealed this, Itachi watched Hinata's expression carefully, cognizant of her admiration for the blond ninja. Kisame gestured to Hinata's feet and Itachi pressed on as she adjusted her stance.

"However, further information is not available. We will need to attain the details of his mission ourselves. The Kyuubi vessel needs to be collected within this year." Hinata nodded solemnly. If her Byakugan had been strong enough, Shukaku's vessel, Gaara, wouldn't have nearly lost his life. The other Demon vessels just may survive the severing of their souls with her help. A burst of renewed determination fueled Hinata's limbs. She blinked away the stinging sweat in her pale eyes and finished the rest of her katas flawlessly.

_She __**must **__get stronger…_

If either of her partners sensed the change in her chakra, they gave no sign of it. When Hinata finished, Kisame gave her sharky grin as she took to the cool shade and handed her a skin of water. She inclined her head in thanks, and then threw her head back to down the cool water. The Uchiha rose to his feet with silent grace, an act that clearly signified his command for them to follow. Hinata quickly recapped her flask and trailed after him with Kisame.

As they left clearing with no sign of previous human existence, Hinata glanced back at the sinking sun in the horizon. The moon, bloody with the hues of fiery sunset, was already visible in its eagerness to traverse the bruising sky. It, too, will follow Itachi in their journey tonight.

They did not pause that night, save only to gather some supplies, as none of them required rest at the fast but easy pace Itachi set. Nonetheless, the birds were already waking in the leafy canopy of the forest when they were within 10 some miles of Konoha. Abruptly, Itachi halted the trio on a large branch high above the ground.

"Uzumaki's mission is of a secretive nature. We may require the entire week." He glanced briefly at Hinata. She understood, and reached up to press her thin fingers to the small diamond seals at the outer corners of her white eyes. Her eyes snapped shut in pain as the seals unfurled across her temples and then dissolved into her skin, chakra roiling behind her eyelids. After several minutes, the sharp sting of the flood of chakra faded to a simple throb. Hinata opened her eyes, squinting until her watering eyes could focus properly. Her distinct Hyuuga eyes were now a deep violet.

The seals were no genjutsu. They had simply increased the amount of pigments in her pale eyes. With such a distinctive trait, and her identity yet to be widely known, it was a necessity to have a way to alter Hinata's white eyes. Even the Sharingan, Itachi grudgingly admitted, is unable to note the presence of an unnatural change in her eyes. And after five years' time, her black hair now brushed her elbows and training had stripped away the childlike roundness of her face. In other words, even the observant Neji will be incapable of recognizing her.

Perfect for infiltration of her old village.

Hinata rubbed at her smarting eyes one last time before removing her even more distinctive Akatsuki cloak and slashed headband. Itachi did likewise and handed it to Kisame, who shoved the items into his pack. It had been decided earlier that Kisame would wait outside Konoha perimeters to help Itachi and Hinata in a clean exit. But it was more so to avoid the overwhelming hassle of disguising his shark-like features. This particular exploit required a large amount of civilian and ninja exposure, namely Sharingan exposure, so genjutsu wouldn't work. Gills, unfortunately, would give away their identities quite quickly.

There was no doubt that the Godaime is aware of Naruto's numerous enemies, the Akatsuki being near the top of the list. The nature of S-class missions themselves are a delicate matter. Extended S-class missions are prime time for ambushes, and Tsunade would take extra pains to conceal the scroll that held such integral information. It would not be beyond her to transport Naruto and his partners away from Konoha so that others will not be able to follow them. It will take the finesse of Itachi's superior intelligence and the powers of Hinata's sharp Byakugan to extract what they seek. Not to mention, every bit of the raw advantage that the both of them possess as former Konoha nin.

Hinata smoothed down her robe, which was cut in the common style of a young lady from the Wave country. The pale blue hues of the fabric washed out her complexion, making her seem sickly and weak, a harmless little civilian on vacation with her elder brother. Her low, loose ponytail added years to her features.

For Itachi, his transformation from missing-nin from Konoha to guileless foreigner took more than an eye-color shift. Hinata helped him rearrange his silky black hair so that it concealed half of his face. The rest, he tucked into a navy bandanna, over which he placed a straw hat. Itachi had abstained from shaving for a few days, and the light shading of hair on his chin blurred the sharp line of the Uchiha jaw. Still, the elegant features of his family shone through, even without the Sharingan. Reluctantly, the Uchiha allowed Hinata to fashion decidedly thicker brows for him. She was careful to touch nothing but the fake caterpillars as she secured them over his arching eyebrows.

Kisame coughed in the background, swallowing what sounded like a snorting laugh. Itachi ignored him, and concentrated on removing his black nail polish. Once satisfied with his appearance as a fisherman, one of the few professions that would explain his calluses, the Uchiha leaped to the ground. Hinata joined him, the choking laughter of Kisame stilled echoing in her ears. The shark man wisely left to scout the area before Itachi decided follow any murderous urges. The pair waited in silence until morning fully awoke over the target village and the thick wooden doors of Konoha creaked open to embrace those that could find it.

As soon as the two stepped out of the lush greenery, their transformation was completed. Itachi's ghostly glide gave way to the loud steps of commoner, firm shoulders now slouched with lack of discipline. His eyes curved into the eerie crescents of a smile. Hinata forced herself to take smaller steps as they approached the gates, and one thin arm snaked up to hook on to Itachi's. He gave no response, and the normalcy of it calmed Hinata's heart.

Five years…it's been a while. Outside these walls, she had learned to hold her head high as she walked, to not stutter in her confidence, to fight for herself. Yet, the home of her earlier self folded around her like too thick a blanket and Hinata found herself unconsciously lowering her gaze. Itachi, again, said nothing as her past weaknesses came to surface, though Hinata was unsure whether it was due to his laconic nature, or the part of the oblivious sibling he played.

The guards let them in with the flood of merchants, asking only their names and country of origin.

"Akegatano Keikoku, Akegatano Kaeru, Wave Country," Itachi told them. Hinata almost smiled at his choice of names: "Warning of Dawn, Transformation of Dawn…" And they entered, easily.

Hinata looked up at the familiar buildings and pursed her lips, determination steeling the violet hue of her eyes. She had a mission to accomplish. There was no room for past insecurities to hinder her. Precious peoples' lives rested on her shoulders.

Itachi turned to her, and Hinata's thoughts scattered from her musings. He smiled that eerie smile. If Hinata did not know of his true visage, she would have been fooled by the utter sincerity of his gentle disguise.

"Sister," – and even his voice sounded sincere – "I'll go look for hotels. Why don't you search for the ingredients for dinner?" His Wave country accent was perfect.

"Very well, Brother," Hinata replied with the giddy smile of a tourist. "I'll be sure to make your favorite dish tonight."

"Please get some water, Kaeru, the road must have made your throat dusty. I meet you at that ramen stand, Ichiraku, in three hours at noon."

If he knew of the significance of that particular restaurant, Itachi gave no sign of it. Since they understood each other perfectly, the two parted ways in the growing crowd of people. Hinata headed to the marketplace, inwardly wincing. Her rusty accent must have grated terribly on Itachi's ears for him to hint so blatantly at her lack of practice. She will have to practice more later; for now, she'll scrape by with the excuse that she spent her childhood elsewhere.

Hinata strolled along the busy street, her pretend browsing leading her from one shop to the next. Ninjas mingled with the civilians; some distinguishable only by the way they seemed to float across ground. She took care to make her steps clumsy as she bought a few items here and there.

"Here Ma'm! I have the best carrots of the entire village; fresh n' juicy, with that sweet taste Konoha is famous for!" a vendor called out to her. Hinata approached the teeming rack of orange vegetables. She hated carrots. As a child, her father had forced her to eat plate after plate of the vegetable steamed. He hadn't even bothered to try to change the variety (Hinata was rather fond of carrot cake), claiming that the beneficial properties for her eyes would be disrupted in any other form. But the vendor looked to be a talkative one, so Hinata would buy some carrots today.

"Good morning." Hinata greeted as her slim fingers searched for the freshest bunches of carrots. As if on cue, a running child bumped her elbow and she stumbled as a civilian would. The vendor, an old grizzly man who might have been a ninja judging by the scars on his face, grinned kindly at her as he asked if she was okay.

"Yes. Is your village always so lively?" Hinata inquired with an embarrassed laugh.

"Oh no! The village is just excited about the upcoming autumn festival."

"Oh?" Hinata said with a small frown. "I don't believe I've ever heard of such a thing in Konoha."

"I'm not surprised," the old man said with a nod. "The Godaime declared this week a time of celebration only recently in honor of the Sandaime's favorite season."

"Wow, that is very exciting!" She handed him two bunches of carrots and he bagged them deftly.

"You're from the Wave, aren't you?" he asked as money exchanged hands. Hinata nodded. "Stay for a few days. The best day is the last day, two days from today. There's a parade honoring the partnership of the ninja and the civilians of Konoha."

"Really!" Hinata exclaimed. "I really must stay for that. I'll asked my brother about it. He holds much respect for ninja." The old man nodded excitedly.

"Almost all village ninja will be there, and after that, there'll be basic technique demonstrations in the marketplace. And all the vendors will be selling their wares at a discount." Hinata allowed a delighted smile to curve across her face, even giggling slightly at the exaggerated wink the old man used to hint at his hope for more carrot consumers.

"Thank you for telling me about this. I look forward to a festival," she said as she received her bag. After they exchanged the usual farewells, the girl bowed and continued her browsing. Very soon, she amassed a basket full of food items like a small carton of eggs and several tomatoes.

Though not certain, Hinata considered it a possibility for Naruto to slip away from the village in the midst of such a parade. He would be able to simply disappear with his team and no one, including his colleagues would know. Then again, the entire situation could be a decoy to lead potential enemies astray. Naruto might not leave until the day after. Either way, it was a certainty that he would leave within a day's deviation from the last day of the festival; it was no coincidence that Naruto would be dispatched the week of the event. That meant that they had no more than three days to obtain the details of this mysterious mission, significantly less time than she had believed that they had. Itachi might have already arrived to similar conclusions.

Lost in her thoughts of pity for Itachi's informant, Hinata did not notice the group of children played tag until it was too late. They were too close and too fast for a civilian to realistically evade. With a very real cry of pain, Hinata let two boys plow into her tiny frame. Her basket went flying, the eggs splattering with the tomatoes to create a soupy mix that clung to her clothing. Hinata rolled away from the stampede of feet, settling to her knees. She reminded herself not to spring to her feet, and stared at her decimated groceries with shock. Inwardly, Hinata wryly smiled as she noticed that only the carrots remained intact.

Figures.

"Oh gosh! Are you okay!" A hand appeared in Hinata's field of vision. She looked up and audibly gasped.

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Come Full Circle

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_By Airyo_

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Several years ago, Hinata's story had begun in a similar way.

"Get up, Hinata."

Sweat, too, beaded down her clammy forehead. And curling her legs, she rose to her feet to train even more. But the sun did not warm her hair, and the breeze did not play gently by her ears. Instead, the stifling heat of summer and the hard lines of the Hyuuga dojo surrounded her.

Chakra flared at her fingertips and she stumbled forward, her legs no longer able to properly support her. She managed to dodge the first few attacks, then a sharp kick to her ribs sent her skidding across the wood floor, gasping for breath.

"Again."

And she was up, desperation glinting in her pearly eyes. She ran through her combination attacks, as he taught her, and to her surprise, he evaded them so easily. A flicker of blue light at his fingertips signaled a move that would leave her in pain. So she stepped outside the pattern, vaulting into an impulsive roundhouse that allowed her to strike at him thrice. He blocked her first two hits, both of the Soft Hand style. But her last, a hard elbow strike taught at the Academy, landed.

All motion ceased. The servants kept their eyes averted, and the Branch members said nothing. Silence hung in the air for a long moment, and then Hiashi removed his arm where Hinata had struck him. Cold disapproval hardened his features.

"That was not a move of the Soft Hand style. You are the heir of the Hyuuga; do not sully it with silly moves you learn elsewhere."

Hinata lowered her head, a blush darkened the flush of exercise on her cheeks. She bowed in apology.

"Gomen nasai, Otou-san. I will try harder." His eyes were the hue of ice.

"Do not let me see you until you have learned your Soft Hand katas properly."

"Hai, Otou-san."

Gaze lowered, Hinata exited the dojo to change. Team assignments were today. But Naruto, the ever-cheerful inspiration, would not be there. Dejectedly, Hinata looked into the mirror and smoothed down her short hair. Checking that the coast was clear, the Hyuuga heir hesitantly tried one of Naruto's trademark grins. Horrified, she slapped her hands over her mouth. She just couldn't. The confidence that she so sorely needed…she couldn't fake it. Not until Hinata had something that merited such confidence.

_She __**must**__ get stronger…_

If Iruka noticed her unusual chakra patterns, he gave no sign as he shattered Hinata's hope of sharing a team with her beacon. If her new teammates noticed, they gave no sign as well. But Hinata wanted it that way. The less attention towards herself, the less chance of people being disappointed in her. With a small sigh, Hinata ignored her lunch box (it was full of carrots) and sipped her flask of water. The cool shade of the tree she sat beneath flickered with the shadows of dancing spring leaves. A bird trilled in the distance and Hinata smiled slightly. Then she remembered her team meeting after lunch, and the minute curve of her lips faded. Shino and Kiba were strong, unlike her. At least Hiashi would approve of the reputations of their respective clans.

"Oh gosh! Are you okay?"

Hinata's head whipped around as the kunoichi seated herself on the bench that the young girl occupied. She was beautiful. A mass of rich brown tumbled along her shoulders, framing deep red eyes and a heart-shaped face. Her high cheekbones were accented by long, feminine lashes, which contrasted sharply with the bulky jounin vest that attempted to disguise her curves. Currently, a frown shaped her full mouth.

"I-I'm fine, th-thank you," Hinata denied in a whisper. "I-I'm not hurt."

"I wasn't referring to that," the red-eyed woman laughed kindly. "Your chakra seems so down." Something in her manner made Hinata feel infinitely better about herself than usual, like she was accepted for who she was. Nonetheless, the shy girl ducked her head.

"I am p-pretty weak," she agreed. The beautiful lady gave Hinata a strange, serious look, as if she wanted to say something else but decided against it. Her ruby eyes shifted to Hinata's open but untouched lunch box.

"That's okay. I'm off to eat some lunch, want to come?" The woman rose gracefully to her feet and extended her porcelain hand.

Kurenai smiled gently down at Hinata.

"You took pretty hard fall there, Miss," the elder kunoichi said as she helped the fallen Hinata up.

"Oh, I'm fine, thank you. I'm not hurt," Hinata insisted in a soft voice, heart hammering with anxiety. Her Genin sensei had aged these five years. She was just as beautiful as the day Hinata first met her, but the experience of time gave new shadows to her clear eyes. The former Hyuuga prayed silently that her long-term sensei would not recognize her. Thankfully, she had thought to conceal her chakra beforehand.

"You sure?" – Hinata nodded, trying to ignore that long searching look that Kurenai gave her – "Alright then...hey, are you new here?"

"Yes, I'm visiting with my brother, from the Wave Country."

"I'm Yuuhi Kurenai. Welcome to Konoha," the Jounin greeted.

"Thank you, I am Akegatano Kaeru. Very nice to meet you." Hinata easily slipped into her role as a quiet but friendly young woman.

"The same. Since we're introduced and all, I'll take you to the nearest bathhouse to clean up. Then I'm treating you to lunch to formally apologize for my wayward Genin." Kurenai told Hinata in her usual firm but graceful manner.

"But –"

"I won't take no for an answer," interrupted Kurenai in the same brisk way she had so many years ago. A piece of raw egg dripped from Hinata's chin to _ploop_ sadly on the ground, and they both chuckled. With the uncomfortable barrier broken, Hinata suddenly found herself dragged to a nearby bathhouse and thoroughly scrubbed by the attendants there. Throughout, Kurenai chattered amiably with her, telling her all about her new Genin and their newest antics, or about herself and her outside hobbies. True to her ninja training, Kurenai ended up revealing nothing that wasn't already known to the general public about herself, and Hinata never had a chance to squeeze in a word.

For a short while, the kunoichi's topic strayed to Shino and Kiba, who had both made Jounin. Kurenai loved them like sons, and she implied as much to her new friend. Hinata refrained from asking about the third member, though she did have soapsuds in her mouth at that time as the attendants pushed her head under the steaming water. When the pale girl resurfaced, Kurenai was nowhere to be seen. After the attendants dunked her head for the fifth time to rid her hair of shampoo, they deemed Hinata fit to escape their washcloths. Kurenai was in the changing room with a beautiful kimono on her arm.

Despite Hinata's frantic protests at Kurenai's generosity, the elder kunoichi managed to coerce the tiny girl to don the silken article. The rich indigo made her false violet eyes glow like gems. The bottom was decorated by pink and purple embroidery in a sweeping design that curled elegantly around her legs up to her left sleeve.

"You look beautiful," Kurenai told her wistfully. At her reserved tone, Hinata looked up curiously. Kurenai explained as she gently tied the powder blue obi. "Your clothes are being washed anyways. So please humor me with my silly little ideas. You remind me of someone that I cherished very much. " Hinata remained silent for a long moment, then timidly, she spoke.

"Did something happen?" A firm tug signaled the completion of the complicated knot. Hinata turned to face her Genin sensei.

"My cherished person was just as gentle and kind as you are. She had a hard life, and yet she always thought of others. I just wish she could see how valued she was to her friends." Kurenai reached for a brush and smoothly pulled it through Hinata's dark tresses. Her brown wrinkled in thought.

"Tell you what, I'll take you to meet her after lunch. Come on now, Kaeru-chan." Kurenai's usage of the suffix made Hinata smile; she was glad that Kurenai already thought highly enough to her call her such. Though slightly confused as to who Kurenai could be reminded of (Hyuuga Hinata, after all, is dead), she followed obediently. Her disguise would protect her, and she was eager to learn how her own precious people had been faring these past five years.

Kurenai led her to a restaurant called the Edge, a place very popular with ninja. Entering the smoky atmosphere, Hinata was amazed to find an enormous group of Konoha nin. Most of former Rookie 9 was crowded around a table.

"Oy, Kurenai-sensei!" a rough voice called over the low murmur of conversation. Hinata looked up to see Kiba waving furiously towards them with his left hand. His right was locked in just as furious an arm wrestling battle with – oh, Hinata's heat skipped beat here - Naruto himself. Unfortunately, Kiba's momentary distraction cost him, and Naruto, with a snarl of effort, slammed his opponent's hand to the wooden table. Kurenai approached the former Rookie 9, laughing easily at the colorful words that escaped Kiba's mouth. The group accepted her among them. Even the bug boy's hard features seemed to soften as he nodded towards his former sensei. Hinata lingered behind Kurenai uncertainly. These were her teammates, her friends, and even though she stood right before them, Hinata never felt more far away.

A strange feeling curled in Hinata's chest. She missed this…this peaceful facade, as if they were not ninja. It was nothing like the life she had lead for the past half decade. Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Shino were all there, comfortable in simply each other's presence. A small part of Hinata sorely noticed the glaring absence of Naruto's team. But before her pale brow could knot itself, Kurenai pulled her forward with gentle strength.

"Guys, meet Akegatano Kaeru, from the Wave! My silly little Genin ran over the poor girl in the marketplace, so I'm treating her to lunch as an apology. Please welcome her." The Rookie 9 were surprisingly open to a "stranger", each eagerly introducing themselves. (Itachi had been wise to chose the Wave for their place of origin, as Konoha and Wave had very good relations…)

"Akimichi Chouji." The blond was still heavy as ever, though his now impressive height balanced well with his width. He looked up shortly in greeting from his bowl of udon.

"Nara Shikamaru." The lazy genius, whom Hinata never got to know very well. His features had hardened into the resemblance of his lanky father, though he seemed as lazy as ever.

"Yamanaka Ino." Still a temperamental blonde, albeit now a truly gorgeous one, as demonstrated by the punches she landed on Shikamaru and Chouji for giving "an ally such stupid greetings; who blinks as a way of acknowledgement?"

"Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru." Her old teammate shot her a fang-filled grin. Five years had given Kiba a more distinctively canine appearance; longer fangs, lanky limbs, a certain hunched posture that reminded Hinata of a smiling wolf sitting on its haunches. And, Akamaru was well…HUGE. The puppy had hit what must have been the mother of all growth spurts, as it was now larger than a pony. Hinata smiled shakily as the dog woofed a hello; the entire floor seemed to rumble as he did so.

"Aburame Shino." The only difference that Hinata could see, other than that of attire, was his height. The rest of his features, which Hinata had only seen a few times, was hidden completely by hood, collar and glasses.

And finally…

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Hinata squeaked as Naruto gave her his nice guy pose, complete with sparkles in the background. A flamethrower gave new hues to her now lobster red face. She could have refrained from blushing, but as Hinata gave into the urge as she had a very legitimate reason to swoon over the Great Naruto.

"Uzumaki…Naruto…" she whispered, nearly falling over. "The…Uzumaki Naruto?" Kurenai steadied her with a firm hand at her elbow. Her lips twitched in amusement.

"I forgot; Naruto helped forge the Naruto Bridge, which was essential to Wave's return to economical stability," - she smiled mischievously at the bewildered blonde - "It seems that you have attained a little celebrity status over there."

Naruto recovered quickly and recharged his nice guy pose, cheerfulness pouring from very cracks of his teeth.

"Haha! Would you guys now believe just how great I am?" the blonde boy bragged. Kiba snorted and gestured dismissively.

"Great at being a loser, perhaps!" Kiba goaded with another smirk. Unphased, Naruto played his game and faked anger at the insult.

"Oh yeah? I'll show you who's a loser! How 'bout another butt-whoop in arm wrestling?"

"You're on, moron!"

Hinata couldn't help but giggle at their antics as she moved to sit with the group. Somehow, she got the idea that both teenagers were trying to impress her with a show of ninja strength, though for what reason she could not fathom.

A waitress set a small plate of senzai (soft bean jam) buns before her. She glanced at Kurenai, who gestured for her eat up. Slightly unnerved by her former sensei's accurate memory of Hinata's favorite foods, the pale girl slowly took a bite of the treat. The sweet flavor burst in her mouth, curling the line of her lips into a small smile. Unaware of the effect of such a genuine smile on her delicate face, Hinata grinned at the group.

"These are delicious," she told them. Naruto, who had been facing Hinata, found himself promptly beaten by a triumphant Kiba. Strangely undisturbed by his defeat, Naruto only laughed sheepishly.

Conversation came easily among the group. Hinata was simply content to sit back and savor her senzai buns as the teammates spoke of mundane things. A nostalgic sense of peace settled over the tiny girl's shoulders like a warm blanket. With the Akatsuki, her peaceful days were quiet and detached, not unlike a clear summer night spent admiring the distant jewels of the sky. But, this peace she now felt was noisy and chaotic, much like falling into a warm bubble bath with the tap still on. Hinata couldn't decide which kind of peace she preferred, and so filed the dilemma away in her mind for later analysis.

Every now and then, Kurenai shoved yet another dish of food under Hinata's nose, urging to try what seemed to be every dish that the Edge offered. Feeling utterly bloated, Hinata set down her chopsticks firmly in a gesture of finality. However, a quick glance at the sun sent her leaping to her feet.

"Oh dear!" she squeaked at the curious eyes of her 'new friends', "I agreed to meet up with my brother at a ramen shop…I think it's called Ichiraku." Naruto visibly perked up at the mention of his favorite restaurant.

"I'm late," Hinata cried as she bowed apologetically to the group and especially to Kurenai. "It's past noon already. I'm sorry for intruding so much on your hospitality, Kurenai-san, and all of you! Thank you!" The flustered Wave girl rushed to leave the Edge, then caught herself and bowed again at Kurenai.

"I'm sorry! I'll bring your kimono back here tomorrow. Sayonara!" Hinata exclaimed hurriedly before darting back out the restaurant. The Rookie 9 members and Kurenai sat for several long moments in silence, not sure on how to react to Hinata's hasty departure. Then Naruto suddenly leaped to his feet, knocking over his chair in his haste.

"Wait for me, Kaeru-san," he yelled excitedly after her, "I want to go to Ichiraku, too!"

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**Come Full Circle**

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By Airyo

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In truth, it was not Itachi's wrath she feared, but rather the brother Keikoku's wrath. As Kaeru, her haste was well justified. So Hinata slipped through the crowd, moving as quickly as she could in the restraining kimono. Muttering soft 'excuse me''s and 'pardon''s, the young woman fought the flow of midday traffic until her eyes glimpsed the Ichiraku store sign. When she found the dark figure of Itachi, Hinata approached the humble ramen booth. Without a doubt, Itachi had long sensed her presence and was simply waiting for a proper distance for a civilian to turn around.

"Kaeru-san!!!" came the loud call. Hinata jerked around in surprise to see Naruto jog up to her. Even if she strained through the noise of the crowd, she could hardly detect his soft, cat-like footsteps. He truly had grown these past years. Where before he had been at least an inch or two shorter than Hinata, Naruto now towered over Hinata by a good distance. Sure, he still wore splashes of his favorite orange, but it was now tastefully incorporated into his more ninja appropriate clothing. His baby face had lengthened into a strong shape that complemented the indomitable spirit in his eyes. Save for his shining blue eyes, Naruto now looked every bit the formidable ninja he is.

"I guess you didn't hear me through the crowd," Naruto said with a grin. "I was calling your name the whole way here." Hinata frowned.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't."

"That's okay," he assured her with a hearty chuckle. For some reason, he seemed uncomfortable to be there. Hinata briefly wondered if he was catching on to her true identity. From behind Hinata, Itachi shifted in his seat.

"Aniki," Hinata greeted with a small smile.

"You're late," Itachi groused. "I was worried some hooligan was harassing you." Hinata cutely shook her head, inwardly suppressing a chuckle as Itachi's usage of a word like "hooligan".

"No, Aniki. I just made some new friends and lost track of time." Itachi lifted his head to glare at Naruto.

"Friends? What kind of ...friends?" Itachi asked suspiciously, although he knew very well exactly what kind of friends she referred to.

"Ninjas! And you love ninjas, Aniki," Hinata hinted. Itachi caught her signal and perked up his character.

"Ninjas? By any chance...are you a ninja?" he asked amiably of Naruto. The blond shinobi laughed uncomfortably as he scratched his head.

"Yes. Hi, I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"Akegatano Keikoku." Itachi replied. "Please, allow me to treat the famous Uzumaki Naruto to ramen."

"REALLY?! ARIGATO!!!" Without any of his former hesitance, Naruto quickly took a seat and grinned eagerly at Itachi.

"YOU'RE WELCOME!!!" the Akaitsuki replied with equal enthusiasm and even gave Naruto a thumbs up. Hinata giggled, knowing for certain that Itachi was deeply displeased with his own idiotic display.

Some time later, Hinata and Itachi returned to their hotel, wallets significantly lighter than before. The former mass murderer had spent the entire lunch outright grilling Naruto for information, giving the poor shinobi hardly any chance to make conversation. But the genius of the situation was that Naruto would think nothing of Itachi's questions, tossing them aside to the admiring energy of a simple Wave civilian.

The two entered their room in silence, secure in the dusky lighting of the window. The days were gradually becoming shorter as winter approached, demonstrated by the early blanket settling over Konoha at a mere 5 pm. Perfect cover for some exploration. Hinata took her time behind the changing screen, tenderly removing her indigo kimono for a plainer civilian kimono. Caressing the cool fabric, the young woman folded the garment with loving care - it is her sensei's kimono after all. Try as she might, Hinata could not severe the ties in her heart to the past.

It hurt still, even five years after being stripped of a title she had not wanted.

"Hyuuga Hinata, you've been given 14 years to prove yourself worthy of a true Hyuuga Heir. Yet again, you fail the Chuunin exam. Your shortcomings has forced the Hyuuga hand. The counsel has judged and found you still wanting. As of this day, Hyuuga Hanabi is the Hyuuga Heir. As of this day, Hyuuga Hinata is a Branch Family member." Waves of murmurs exploded from the audience of this shameful ceremony. Hinata, who looked so delicate in her black kimono, lowered her gaze and kept her face blank, a hard task for the timid girl. In the corner of her eye, she could glimpse her team. Kurenai-sensei, whose ruby eyes glittered in anger tears, still so beautiful in her protective fury. Kiba-kun, whose canine grin had transformed into a fang-filled scowl, still so brotherly despite his growls. Shino-kun, whose stoic countenance had been replaced by an aura of agitated bugs, still so coldly foreboding as a storm.

Hinata saw none of these things through her tears as she was led away to a separate building for her branding. She only saw the pity buried deep in each one, a deep sorrowful pity for her situation, for her weaknesses, for Hinata. The 14-year-old girl could not help but look away from this suffocating pity and instead, turned her eyes to her own father, who stood so calmly next to Hanabi. The new Heir stood with pride, a childish smugness in her pale eyes.

The disgraced Hyuuga returned her gaze forward, inwardly wishing that Hanabi would understand the gravity of her new title. Her older sister did not want this title, yet to for her to be rid of this title, she must fall far, far down into a hell of permanence. Hinata wondered if Hanabi would still find her victory sweet when she realized that it went beyond an unrequited sibling rivalry. A small bitter smile played at the former Heir's lips and she stepped outside onto the neat path to the branding building. Perhaps it is meant to be this way. In a station she was meant to fill, Hinata would no longer disappoint those that expected something of her. Perhaps, there could be a little less pity in her teammates' eyes as they witness her struggles to fill shoes 30 sizes too large.

Above all else, Hinata loathed pity. Pity meant she was disappointing someone, that she was less than standard. Pity also signified the doubt of the beholder - a horrid, asphyxiating doubt that she couldn't do a damn thing to change her lot in life. Pity was for those trapped in claws too strong to be pried open. Naruto was not someone who could be pitied, for he is steadily rising to a better life. Hinata did not want pity either, for she wanted to hope that she could fight and gain even a little for herself.

"I want to change myself," she had told Neji that day he beat her down. Images flashed through her eyes, of how she rose like a phoenix amid the crimson of her own blood, of that cruel mark on his brow that seemed to extend into his soul like the iron claws a birdcage, of how Naruto broke free of every barrier created by those around him...

"I want to change myself..." Hinata whispered to herself. Her guide ignored her and tugged her closer to the place where she was to be caged. Neji had often compared his own mark to that of a cage.

"Caged..." Hinata murmured in a daze to herself. "Then I won't be able to fly..." Something inside her shrieked in protest, grating like rusty weapons too long unused. Hinata's steps froze.

"I...I...want to fly..." she whimpered hoarsely, oblivious of the guide's harsh warnings. Hinata wrapped her thin arms about herself and licked her cracked lips.

"I want to fly," the young girl repeated with more strength. The guide moved to grab her elbow. With a sharp movement unlike her usually slow pace, Hinata evaded him. Looking at him with crazed eyes, Hinata repeated the phrase again, each word spiked by a punch of emphasis.

"I. Want. To. Fly."

"Hinata! What is this nonsense?!" Hiashi approached, a frown on his face at the antics of his weak daughter. He reached to grab Hinata's arm and was rewarded with a painful counter to the wrist. With determination many thought long gone from her person, Hinata pinned her father with a Byakugan swirling with chakra.

"I refuse to be branded," she told him evenly.

Before anyone could process her words, Hinata vaulted herself to the roof and was gone. Her spirit soared at the rush of freedom through her veins.

Blinking to rid herself of this heady feeling, Hinata refocused back to the present. She could hear Itachi removing his own attire on the other side of the screen. Five years ago, Hinata would be blushing and stammering nonsense at this point. But traveling in the utilitarian style Itachi was fond of quickly trained that response out of her, as it was cheaper to share one room. She had her changing screen, and both Itachi and Kisame were surprisingly more honorable than most people thought they were. But more likely was that those two could care less for areas outside their current mission.

Hinata emerged to see Itachi waiting, still partially disguised as Keikoku.

"We're infiltrating the Hokage's office tonight," Itachi explained. And Hinata understood. There is no point to even bother checking the missions center for such a high-level mission. And with such tight security, they were bound to run into one or two shinobi - it was slightly more innocent to appear as lost civilians rather than lost missing-nin out looking for some secretive information. Of course, that line of thought would only work it they weren't caught doing very un-civilian things. Caution was still necessary.

Hinata and Itachi slipped out of their hotel room as soon as sunset colored the horizon. Sharingan swirling and Byakugan blazing, the two missing-nin were but two dashes of darkness against the fire-streaked sky as they ran along the system of roofs. They found the Hokage's Tower ablaze with light, shining brightly over the village like a guiding beacon. Perhaps it was the sheer presence of so many powerful chakras that even the lanterns responded to their brilliance. As far as the lighting went, it was clear that the Hokage planned to yet again join the moon in her vigil over Konoha. But no one present sensed the two figures that slipped into their headquarters. Where this is light, after all, there are always shadows to accompany.

The empty room they entered was on the second floor - the Hokage's office was on the fifth. Silently, Hinata followed Itachi, her still-violet eyes were framed by a web of chakra lines. Whenever either of them sensed a danger of sorts, they made a soft noise that could be easily mistaken for a simple breath of the wind and the pair would freeze into the blackness of the building. After waiting for the 5th shinobi in the past few minutes to pass, Hinata checked through the walls of the fifth floor. Itachi glanced at her quick flash of fingers: 6 ANBU, 3 Jounin, 5 Chuunin, and the Hokage. That was better than an estimated night guard - there would most likely be twice as many Jounin and Chuunin if their leader were not amongst them. Inside the office, there was only the Hokage and two ANBU guards.

With an inward sigh, Hinata made sure that her chakra was undetectable and her body hidden was by genjutsu. Then, from her place on the hallway ceiling outside the office door, she settled herself to a relatively comfortable position. Itachi did the same on the other side of the hallway. If nothing else, Hinata had learned the art of complete notice-me-not through her travels with Itachi and Kisame. That, and the patience of a saint.

And so, Hinata began reading through the documents inside the office. Her quick mind shifted through the useful and the useless efficiently, memorizing data that may help and noting the placement of others that were buried under layers of genjutsu. Itachi kept a careful watch of possible dangers. Normally, they would have not dared to conceal themselves so close to the powerful Tsunade - but it has been a long night and no doubt that the Godaime is just as weary as her ANBU guards.

Some hours later, when Hinata had long finished combing the Hokage's office, the ANBU guards of the next shift finally arrived. At the same time. Tsunade decided that Nature's call was too strong to resist. She left one of her guards behind and took the other. The Godaime's footsteps had hardly faded when the remaining guard slumped to a heap on the ground. Then Itachi calmly turned a questioning gaze to Hinata, who quickly pointed out several hiding places for the Hokage's more important papers.

Many of the layered genjutsu were indeed clever and the former Hyuuga took note of the more creative ones. Had she not been trained to see through genjutsu specially constructed to confuse the Byakugan, Hinata would have missed the stashes completely. It seems, Hinata realized with a small smile, that these were especially there for the nosier members of the Hyuuga clan .

"None others?" Itachi whispered. He had finished rifling through the papers that Hokage took such pains to hide, and by the expression in his Sharigan eyes, Itachi did not seem pleased with the fruits of his labor, or the lack of thereof. Hinata signed the negative; she doubted that the Uchiha wanted to peruse Tsunade's secret shojo manga stash or her pile of useless lottery tickets. So with a terse gesture, Itachi motioned their exit. He shuffled the desk papers around a little and arranged the unconcious guard so that appeared that the break in was for negligible information.

Empty-handed, the two missing-nin's forms dissolved to nothingness. Some distance away, two silhouettes slipped along the roofway, silent as shadows.

Hinata ran lightly alongside Itachi, careful to shield the small sounds of her movement and secure in the cloak of night. Suddenly, the tiling of the roof gave way under her feet. The kunoichi managed to fluidly correct her balance, but her momentary surprise broke her chakra mask and allowed her aura to flare brightly to all eyes of those who could see chakras. The broken tiles clacked on their way down the steep roof, landing with ominous _clinks_ that echoed in the alleyway belong. Time seemed to pause, like a great beast that sensed its hidden prey.

Itachi whipped his head around, Sharingan flaring to life as he scanned their surroundings. Hinata did the same, searching with her own blood-line. Already, she could see the movement of a patrol squad heading in their direction to investigate the presence of such an aura flare at such a strange time as midnight. It would not do to run - now that the Konoha-nin were specifically looking for them, even Itachi could not hide his presence.

Eyes focused on the alleyway below them, Itachi motioned Hinata to the ground. They both knew now was not the time for pointing any fingers - the patrol was quickly approaching and judging by their chakras, running was not an option now that they have locked on.

Hinata knew that they will have to diverge to lead the approaching shinobi astray. The guise of brother and sister out at a strange time like midnight in a seedy part of the village did not make sense. Playing a pair of horny lovers was out of the question since they could be recognized later by any member of this patrol group and awkward questions would have to dealt with. There was one other way, but it would have to be believable. She raised her indigo eyes to meet Itachi's gaze and knew he had long reached the same conclusion.

"May I?" Itachi asked quietly, intricately patterned eyes studying the tiny young woman.

Hinata bit her lip and nodded slightly. To her confusion, the Uchiha seemed to hesitate - several moments passed, and the shinobi were too close for comfort, before he roughly grasped her shoulders and pushed her thin frame to the wall. And then he punched her hard, in the face. The squad rounded the corner in time to see Hinata's body crumble to the ground and her assailant disappear into the darkness.

White stars danced before Hinata's watering eyes. She had enough forethought to turn off her Byakugan, else the bursts of swimming chakra bombarding her senses would induce a larger headache. Itachi certainly dealt very painful punches, even he was trying to hold back. Hinata was grateful that her usually apathetic comrade took the time to angle his punch so it yielded the maximum amount of seeming damage for the least amount of pain. No doubt, an impressive bruise was already flowering across her cheek and she could feel the extensive swelling around her eye.

In the background, she could hear shouting as several Chuunins chased after Itachi. Playing the part of the assaulted woman, Hinata weakly attempted to prop herself up. Inwardly, she wrinkled her nose at the stickiness of the trash around her - why was it that she always ended up so filthy? The scent of pungent waste clung to her robe and quickly working its way into her very skin.

"Ma'm, are you okay?" a deep voice asked. A pair of shinobi sandaled feet appeared before her watery field of view and Hinata followed the hard line of his figure to the frowning face of her former teammate.

Kiba regarded her for a moment before his professional face melted into one of concern.

"Oh kami-sama! You're okay, aren't you Kaeru-san? I'll kill that fucking bastard!!!" Kiba began to rant as he gently helped Hinata to her feet. Akamaru approached them and circled Hinata. He sniffed Hinata and whined, withdrawing his sensitive nose from Hinata's proximity. The missing-nin in disguise felt a abrupt wave of gratitude for the trash-juice soaked in her robe - if Akamaru had detected the scent of an S-class missing-nin on her, her situation would become rather difficult to explain.

"We lost him." The Chuunins had returned in a short amount of time. Itachi didn't feel like playing around this time. Kiba growled, a sound echoed by Akamaru. They both realized that the assailant was permanently lost now due to the strong stench of garbage that covered his scent.

"That sucks!" Kiba groused. "But it's over now. You guys continue the patrolling pattern I showed you - it's nice to use when on reconaissance missions. But keep an eye out for suspicious people. I'm going to escort Kaeru-san to her hotel and file the report." Akamaur woofed as if to accentuate Kiba's words. The chuunin group obeyed and left to continue their exercise/patrol.

The two of them and Akamaru were left. Kiba regarded her for a moment and Hinata knew she looked pitiful with a monstrous bruise on her pale face and a dirtied kimono hanging askew on her thin frame. Without a word, her former teammate removed his coat and draped it over her shoulders.

"Kiba-k-san!" Hinata protested, almost slipping and calling him by his old title. "I'll get your coat dirty!" The dog-boy waved her protest away, a good-natured grin on his face.

"Don't worry about it - I just don't want you catching cold. I've been meaning to wash that old coat anyways." Akamaru barked in agreement and Kiba laughed easily to whatever the dog said. Hinata watched them with nostalgic eyes; the loud, rash boy she remembered had matured into a capable young man. She really had missed her team.

"Can you walk?" Hinata nodded in response.

"Kay, the I'll take you back to your inn. Your brother must be worried sick." Hinata smiled and nodded again. They returned to Hinata's hotel in a comfortable silence, though Kiba seemed to have something to say, as he kept opening his mouth and closing it.

"Thank you, Kiba-san. I really appreciate your help," Hinata said outside the gates her inn. She moved to remove his coat, but she paused when Kiba shook his head.

"Keep it until the next you time stop by the Edge," he told her, "for the walk inside."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Well...thank you," Hinata replied, though her words never quite reached the other's mind. Silence broke the conversation. Kiba was looking at her strangely, almost as if he were looking through her. Hinata tilted in head in inquiry.

"Kiba-san?" The jounin shook his head.

"Sorry. For a moment, you reminded me of someone I was very fond of..." The flash of pain in Kiba's eyes disappeared behind a wide grin and he gave her a thumbs up as he turned to go.

"Make sure you put some salve on that," he said as he gestured to her face. "If you need some, stop by the Edge tomorrow and I'll get you some. I'll see ya." With a wave, Kiba left with Akamaru by his side; a boy and his puppy, and yet much more.

"Farewell," Hinata said softly after Kiba had left and then she also turned to go. From a clear patch in the cloudy night, the moon shone brightly over the gate door as it clicked shut.

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	4. SCROLL 4

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**Come Full Circle**

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By Airyo

Scroll 4

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Hinata hissed as she probed her swollen cheek. One of the upsides (or downsides, in this current situation) of being a shinobi was an unusually fast healing rate. A normal healing rate usually meant inevitable death at an inconvenient time. Already, the dark bruise was beginning to fade. In order to keep her alibi intact, Hinata had neglected icing the tender area and also slept on that side of her face. She woke up with one eye completely swollen shut and the entire side of her face seemingly devoured by the mass of purple.

Hurrying along the street with both Kiba's coat and Kurenai's kimono in her arms, Hinata ignored the strange looks she received for poking her impressive bruise. Narrowly dodging a shopping civilian that approached by her blind side, she slowed her pace to avoid further collisions. With only one good eye, Hinata found herself severely handicapped in the depth perception and balance departments. Wondering how the famous Copy-Nin could walk in a straight line, she rubbed her one eye furiously and steadfastly walked to her destination: the Edge.

The restaurant door chimed softly as Hinata eased it open to survey the place. The room seemed significantly larger without yesterday's boisterous crowd to fill it. Save for a few lazy ninja in the dusky corners of the restaurant, the booths were void of people. Somehow, Hinata felt very small and alone, looking into such a large space with the hope that it would be magically filled with warm smiles.

Feeling a little silly for such thoughts, as few shinobi would be relaxing so early into the day when there were missions to be competed, Hinata retreated from the Edge.

"Kaeru-san?" Hinata squeaked in surprise as she spun around. She hadn't felt a presence behind her yet Naruto was right before her, a small shy smile on his face.

"Y-y-you scared me!" Hinata breathed, holding a hand over her heart. The blond shinobi chuckled and the boisterous personality that Hinata adored in him shone through.

"Sorry, I guess the sneaky ninja thing is a habit," Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head. He froze at the sight of Hinata's bruised up face.

"Kami-sama!!! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?!" Some people across the street turned to stare at Naruto's loud outburst. Sheepishly, Naruto waved away their attention and lowered his tones.

"Who did this? I'll go 'talk' to him!" Just as fiercely, Naruto hissed his angry words, knuckles crackling menacingly. Hinata shook her head vehemently.

"Don't worry about it, Naruto-san! Please calm down." Hinata laid a gentle hand on Naruto's flexing arm and went on to briefly explain her "encounter" with a common thug. "I simply wasn't very careful in where I was going. This bruise looks worse than it really it."

"Really." Naruto didn't sound very convinced. Hinata nodded firmly.

"Yes."

"You sure."

"Yes."

"One hundred percent sure?"

"Yes."

"Absolutely positively sure?"

"YES!"

"So I don't get to beat someone up?" Naruto pulled a pathetic-looking puppy-face, as if someone had stolen his ice cream. Hinata couldn't help but giggle, giving his arm an affectionate squeeze before covering her mouth.

"No...I sorry. You don't." A comical pout wrinkled Naruto's face.

"Awwww man! What good are these muscles if I can't even avenge a pretty lady like you?" It was understood; for now, Naruto wasn't going to press this issue since it seemed to upset Hinata so much. Hinata was grateful for his respect of her privacy, as it could be very easily revealed that her assailant was no attacker at all, but her partner in a treasonous deed. Situation defused, the two shared a good laugh at Naruto's childish antics.

"Hey, were you going into the Edge?" He reached to open the door for Hinata, pausing when the pale girl shook her in the negative.

"No, I was simply by to look for Kurenai-san and Kiba-san," Hinata replied. "I wanted to thank them for their generous hospitality to a mere stranger like me." The kunoichi did not miss the strange expression that flickered across his face.

'Is he...jealous?!'

"Unfortunately, I think Kurenai-san and Kiba are out on missions." Naruto explained. "But they'll be back very soon!" he added quickly at the sight of Hinata's slightly downcast expression. "Do you want me to return the jacket and kimono for you?" Naruto gestured to the bundle of clothing in her arms. Slowly, Hinata again motioned the negative.

"If it's alright with Naruto-san, I'd very much like to thank them in person and return their items. But I thank you for your kind offer," Hinata replied with a small bow of her head. Naruto agreed heartily with her and again laughed his free, open chuckle.

"Until then...do you want a small tour of Konoha?" His large blue eyes shone with hope, an eager smile playing at his lips. Hinata opened her mouth to again deny Naruto an affirmative answer...

"Alright," it came out with a smile. She felt guilty for repeatedly shooting down Naruto's hand in friendship.

Hinata followed Naruto away from the Edge towards the heart of Konoha markets, wondering if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Naruto showed such interest in her.

'It's a good thing...' she told herself. 'You're one step closer to completing your mission...Itachi needs you to do your part...'

He had been waiting for her when she returned last night.

His first reaction was to wrinkle his nose slightly at the pungent odor that followed her into the room.

"The bathes are still open across the street," Itachi told her. Hinata drew Kiba's jacket closer to her shoulders.

"Ah. Gomen. I couldn't avoid the waste," the young woman explained with an apologetic smile. Itachi had changed before Hinata returned and was currently seated by his bedroll. He swept his dark robes from his legs and stood, black eyes drilled onto her face.

"Kiba-kun was convinced of our act," Hinata continued. No doubt, Itachi was already well aware of that. As if reading her mind, Itachi replied with a simple 'yes' to her statement.

"You skill in angling your punch was very effective - I can't feel it that much, yet I know that the bruise is very large..." Again, something Itachi was probably already cognizant of.

This time, he didn't reply as he seemed to glide closer until the two were but an arm span apart. His hand drifted up towards her swelling cheek. Silence held, so his smooth motion was stretched to unimaginable lengths in perception. Even though she saw it coming so long before, Hinata still gasped at the feel of his knuckle ghosting along her jaw. And then, just like the touch of a phantom, the soft contact was gone.

When Hinata blinked, Itachi had returned to his former position in the room, by his bedroll.

"The guest pass is on the nail by the door. Your cheek will be fine if you don't scrub it overly hard." With that, Itachi turned to settle himself into bed. Recognizing a dismissal, Hinata nodded and turned to exit the room.

"Thank you, Itachi."

"Mm." With a small smile, Hinata slid the shoji door shut.

She had long given up on trying understand Itachi's actions; it was as futile as asking a blind man to describe the scenery before him.

"Kaeru-san?" Hinata blinked and refocused onto Naruto's blue orbs.

"Huh?" came the intelligent answer. With an apologetic smile, Hinata shook her head. "Gomen. I was lost in thought."

"That's okay. It's good that you're thinking." Silence hung for several moments as Hinata attempted to decode what Naruto was saying.

"Were you --" Hinata began suspiciously. Naruto finally seemed to process what he said.

"No, no NO!!! I didn't mean it like that. I, in no way, shape or form meant to imply that you didn't think. Thinking is very good. I'm sure you do lots of it because you look like you do. But not that I'm assuming that you're a nerd in anyway, not that nerds are bad or anything, not that it shows on your face that you think hard it's that you seem to look like a person who thinks on things and go impulsively like some people...I...I...I just mean that you're not stupid!!!" Hinata stared at Naruto, who managed to babble his entire spiel without a single breath of air in between words. Panting hard in the effort to explain that hole he dug himself into, Naruto shot her another sheepish smile, wincing as if he expected her to hit him for the mess of words he'd created.

Slowly, Hinata lifted her hand, a serious expression on her face.

"Naruto...you just" - here, Naruto closed his eyes, knowing that Kaeru was going to hit him -

"--made absolutely no sense." Instead of the usual beating when he was being an idiot with Sakura, Naruto heard twinkling laughter. Prying open his eyes, he saw the pale girl curled around her stomach, laughter filling every angle of her body. The hand Hinata had raised now covered her mouth, doing little to muffle her girlish sound.

"Eh?"

"I was going to ask you what you wanted to say," Hinata explained, stilled trying to suppress her giggles. "I knew what you meant about thinking." Naruto again displayed the sheepish smile that he uses so often in front of Hinata.

"I...uh...wanted to know if there was anything you wanted to visit first. There's a lot to see here in Konoha so maybe you've heard of something that you might interested in."

"I've heard a lot about the Hokage Monument - are we allowed to get a closer look?" Hinata looked towards the distant mountain range and tried to ignore how they would have to pass the Hyuuga compound in order to get there. Naruto lit up like a lantern, his embarrassed expression gone.

"Yeah! There's no formal tourist center but the area is open for anyone who wants to explore it. I know of a few trails that we can walk!" Here, Naruto's foxy grin pulled across his face like an elastic band. No doubt, he was remembering his Academy days. Hinata fondly recalled the same expression on the face of a little blond brat that led shinobi on wild goose chases all over Konoha.

"SHUT UP, YOU IDIOTS! None of you guys could something this horrible. But I can!! I am incredible!!!" Her favorite eleven-year-old had declared while painting swirlies on the Yondaime's face.

An amused smile curved her lips at the mental image and Naruto responded to her smile with a wide grin.

"That would be lovely."

The sun shone warmly as Hinata and Naruto walked together. Hinata's pale complexion was flushed with the heat that gathered through her black hair and the kunoichi was glad that she wore a pastel-colored robe.

"...and then I took out the bad guy with one punch. I save Kakashi-sensei and my team without breaking a sweat! To thank me, they even treated me to ramen cuz' they knew that I save their butts and..."

Naruto was getting more comfortable around her alternate persona, as demonstrated by his stream of words. It pleased Hinata that Naruto could consider getting close to her. His endless words washed over Hinata like a wave; sometimes distinct words, sometimes a pleasant hum. But his voice, which had served as an anchor for her before, did little to calm her. It was all Hinata could do to not to show an outward sign of agitation as the they passed right in front of the Hyuuga compound.

"...so I worked and worked at it until I could do it with both hands. It sucked that I couldn't use two at the same time but I looked cool enough with just one so I was pretty happy..."

Hinata glanced towards the main gates several times, praying that no one of the Main Family would emerge from within. When they reached the corner, Hinata exhaled the air she had held tight in her chest and refocused on Naruto's words as they turned.

"...so then I went on a three year trip with Ero-sennin, learning all sorts of weird stuff. Heck, did you know that you can combine different elemental jutsus--" Hinata's gasp curtailed his thought.

Hyuuga Neji greeted them coolly.

"Uzumaki."

"Hey-ya Neji! Back from your early morning training session?"

"Yes," replied Neji, pale eyes traveling to Hinata's downcast face. Hinata steeled her face into one of unfamiliar interest and raised her eyes to meet him. A myriad of emotions flickered across his features: shock, confusion, regret, sorrow, resentment, envy, regret, and many more that Hinata couldn't name, until it settled back down to the icy Hyuuga mask. Had Hinata not looked intently for the small gestures of emotion, she would have never caught the fleeting touches of feeling. Years of life within the transparent walls of the Hyuuga compound had schooled both of them to a new level of understanding of the subtleties of expression. But her cousin must have experienced a particularly strong reaction if even Hinata, five years removed from the Hyuuga world, could detect it. A cold finger drew a line down Hinata's spine; she began to doubt the change five years could bring to her.

"Who is your companion?" Neji inquired politely, distantly, like a stranger...like Hinata simply reminded him of someone involved in unpleasant memories. The tension in Hinata's body drained away as Naruto enthusiastically introduced the two. She was being paranoid. That's what it was. Her disguise is perfect from the dark plum eyes to the sharp angles of her older face to the sweeping bangs of her hairstyle - everything is different. Neji would be trying to juxtapose the memory of a scared little girl with the image of a quietly confident woman. It was a simple psychological reflex to see aspects of people your are familiar with in completely unrelated strangers.

"Nice to meet you, Hyuuga-san." It was strange to curl her tongue around the syllables of her former name. She received a polite bow from the Hyuuga.

"Likewise, Akegatano-san." Seemingly oblivious as always, Naruto just grinned good-naturedly. Neji and Naruto continued briefly update the other of their ninja lives. To Hinata's relief, however, Neji soon excused himself to bathe and Naruto and her continued on their way.

Neji-nii-san had grown up. Before he had seemed like an adult trapped in a little boy's body, but with the added height of 5 years, he no longer seemed so awkward in the role of the reserved young man. Hinata almost missed his stony personality.

After barely surviving Sasuke's infamous Chuunin exam defection, the icy Hyuuga Neji began to warm up to his Main Family cousin. When Hinata trained in the dojo by herself, instead walking by with a scathing glare, Neji would pause to watch for a few moments, offer a helpful tip, and then leave before the confounded Hinata could so much as find air to thank him. The first few times he did this, Hinata nearly reopened her internal wounds due to the frightened pounding of her injured heart. However, after a good half month of this treatment, Hinata began to relax and even look forward to Neji's little visits. She even gathered the courage to ask her father to schedule her dojo time on the same hour every day of the week.

Of course, Hiashi rejected her request - Hanabi now got first dibs on practice times.

Yet despite whatever time Hinata was practicing in the Hyuuga compound, Neji would always eventually make his entrance and disappear just as quickly. The consistency of it all comforted Hinata and her wounds from the Chuunin exam didn't seem to hurt as much as before.

Five weeks into this pattern, Neji didn't show up. He usually arrived by the first half of the 2-hour training session, and Hinata was frantic worry by the time the clock hit a quarter hour after. Neji was still recuperating from his nearly fatal wounds and the thought that something could have hurt him sickened Hinata. That night, Hinata kept herself wide awake with all sorts of imagined situations that Neji could have gotten himself into, finally falling into a brief, exhausted sleep when pink dawn curled around the horizon. She barely managed to wake up in time for the early morning spar that Hiashi scheduled for Hanabi and herself.

It was painful to experience, and probably even more painful to watch. Joints stiff with fatigue and eyes blurry from a night of suppressed tears, Hinata lumbered about with the grace of an injured duck. A sitting duck.

That afternoon, as Hinata gingerly opened her training session with a kata, Neji appeared by the sliding door.

"You were pathetic this morning," he commented. With a squeak, Hinata whipped around, nearly tripping over her own feet.

"N-Neji-nii-san...you're b-back." Neji gave her a scrutinizing look.

"Did it perturb you so greatly that I wasn't present yesterday?" His question was head on, and Hinata felt an embarrassed flush take over her pale skin.

"I was worried about N-Neji-nii-san..." Looking down, Hinata fiddled with her fingers, unable to suppress her bad habit.

"I was on a mission, Hinata-sama."

"Oh." Hinata tried not to think about the absurdity of her entire situation and simply looked to the sleek wooden floor. She heard an exasperated sigh from Neji and then approaching footsteps, a soft _pat, pat_ of clothed feet.

"Let's start with your basic katas."

"Let's start with a tour basic Hikata." Naruto seemed to say. Hinata shook off the web of her memories.

"Pardon?"

"Let's start with a tour, is that 'kay Hinata?"

For a full second, Hinata's world froze. He had called her 'Hinata', not 'Kaeru'...did he know? Icy hands gripped her weak heart and Hinata thought it would explode. With shaky breaths, she forced herself to inhale and exhale evenly. It was probably just a slip of tongue, since she did remind people of the old Hinata, and Naruto would be the first to accidentally call her so.

"Okay," Hinata replied smoothly, pushing all her worries into the back of her mind, and followed Naruto's lead. Before they turned the corner, Hinata could help but glance back at the Hyuuga compound one more time.

Neji had already disappeared into the gates, which were now closed tight to the world. Despite Neji's intensive guidance, Hinata still failed the next Chuunin exam. But that was acceptable since Neji had been impressive enough that exam warrant a promotion and Hiashi was political enough to assume that all attention was simply reserved for one Hyuuga.

Hinata had no excuse to buffer Hiashi's rage when she failed the Chuunin exam a third time. Both her teammates were promoted by then, and only the weak _girl_ of the group left behind. She had made it to the Final Rounds, giddy with her solid victory from the Preliminaries. She had also played perfectly into the hands of her opponent, a manipulative nin who used optical illusions to fool the Byakugan. Her disowning ceremony was a week afterwards. Hinata looked down at her callused hands and smiled sadly.

It was Neji who had let her escape that day.

It was no coincidence that when he led her to her branding at the other end of the compound, Neji took the route that was closest to the edge of the property, which also happened to be near the borders of Konoha. After she fled, the Hyuuga genius could have easily amassed a retrieval team to halt her escape. Yet there was only mass chaos behind her.

There were no coincidences that night.

Had Hinata not failed her third Chuunin exam, she and Neji might have become friends. She was well aware of the fact that Neji hadn't done any of those deeds for her. Hinata was simply the instrument of his healing. Though Neji was no longer so hateful of the Main Family, his mark was still there. The wounds of the situation had closed, but the scars could never fade. Out of guilt and duty, Neji had coldly trained her, never once crossing the line between acquaintance and friend during the entire year they had spent together. Out of guilt and pain, Neji had kept another Hyuuga from donning the hated mark.

Whatever his moral reasons, Hinata was grateful. In return, she could hope for the Hyuuga that he would open his eyes one day and see beyond the walls of the Hyuuga compound.

She also hoped that she would never see Hyuuga Neji ever again.

And so, Hinata turned her eyes to the smiling Naruto and laughed at some inane joke of his and they walked to the Hokage Monument.

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A.N. After the Chuunin Exam arc, I assume Neji was given a good long leave to recuperate, so he wouldn't have had anything better to do than wander around the Hyuuga Compound.


	5. SCROLL 5

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**Come Full Circle**

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_By Airyo_

Scroll 5

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"Get up, Hinata."

She hissed these words to herself, mimicking the harsh tone that Hiashi so often used with her. A curl of anger warmed her stomach.

_Yes, get angry, Hinata._

"Get up, you stupid little girl."

Her anger coiled like a serpent and it burned in her veins, searing away the weakness in her limbs. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth and she wiped it, flicking it away with disdain.

_Get angry, Hinata. Let the rage overtake your doubts._

She rose. She stood. She was so angry her blood boiled. It boiled, and refused to further spill.

With a snarl, she attacked, hands, feet, elbows knees shouldersteethnails...anything she could use to harm her opponent. She used only the simplest moves, taught to Academy babies, but her anger had fueled her movements into a storm of offense.

_You have wronged me. I do not deserve to be treated this way._

Her opponent had no face. If he did, it changed constantly, from that of the cousin who bullied her to the sister who abandoned her to the father who abused her . Each face brought about a new onslaught of kicks and punches. Not one move was of the Soft-Hand style.

Her eyes were a pale, almost white, lavender. The calm color clashed terribly with the expression on her face, the blood on her hands.

_I am angry. You had no right._

Her opponent stood no chance and when he stopped trying to defend himself, she stopped. Still angry, still wrathful, still Hinata.

_I am angry. I should have stood up for myself._

The young kunoichi stared at the limp figure of her opponent, slumped against a large slab of granite. He was a Chuunin-level missing-nin from the Rock. He was out of his league. But with her anger burning to an end, along with the fading adrenaline in her body, she became afraid again.

Hinata turned and fled.

It had been 3 weeks by herself in the dark clutches of freedom. Three weeks of overwhelming fear. Three weeks of heady uncertainty. So suddenly bereft of the pressures as Clan Heir and Konoha ninja, Hinata didn't know what to do. She feared her freedom. So she only focused on the powerful need to escape. This need became a pillar for her confused mind, a boulder to cling to so that she wouldn't float away to nothingness. She needed to find herself before she lost herself. Again.

So she ran.

After Hinata had cleared Konoha's walls, she paused only to rip two slits along her kimono, allowing herself full range of motion. Then Hinata ran, her panicked breath nearly choking her and her paranoia forcing her to keep going. Fear clouded her mind, but she knew to hide her tracks – she doubled back and around so many times that ever the best of the Inuzuka would have been hard pressed to track her. Hinata lasted almost three weeks with this desperate pace before succumbing to fatigue.

Only when she woke from her exhausted sleep, did her mind clear long enough for her to realize that she had wandered into the country of Earth. Unlike the country of the Wind, where lush forests sheltered the land, the Earth country was a land graced with few trees. The rolling terrain was mainly peppered with shrubbery and grasses, and boulders that towered over all else.

Protected by one such boulder, Hinata slowly nursed herself back to health, drinking from a small, nearby creek and eating berries. But after three days of inactivity, Hinata found herself growing restless, much like a bird that had recently gained the ability to fly. Feeling far braver than she had for weeks, the girl stepped out of her shelter and explored.

It was a mistake on her part and her movements brought Hinata to the attention of another missing-nin. Her opponent was Chuunin level at the very least, and for some reason, found Hinata's life to be offensive. At first, it seemed that Hinata was out of her league, that her flight so newly won would be cut devastatingly short.

Such was not the case.

The memory of freedom was too dear to loose so quickly and Hinata grew angry that he would try and steal it away. With the burning lucidity that every animal possessed in a desperate fight for survival, Hinata saw what she must do to defeat him. But upon defeating the other missing-nin, her mind again descended into a blind fog of fear. After only a moment of vicious, triumphant defiance in the face of mere survival, the instinctual fear again welled inside her like infectious pus, and it drove her forward.

Sick of mind, sick of heart, and just so sick of everything, was how she spent her first weeks as a missing-nin.

And now, looking over Konoha from atop the Yondaime's head, Hinata felt as if she was back in those horrid, anchorless weeks. Her stomach roiled and she felt sick again. The sight of Konoha appearing so...normal...from a bird's eye view was disturbing. The people below went on with their happy little lives, like nothing was wrong. Even the Hyuuga estates were simply normal, as if everything that occurred there was normal, was nothing of notice, nothing of importance.

As if her struggles there were nothing.

For a brief, burning moment, Hinata hated Konoha.

She hated that she was but an insignificant speck to the great Konoha, that it did not see her pain, that it did not see her, that it did not save her as she withered away under the pressure of her title. She hated its facade of normalcy, hated the people behind it, hated the people that allowed it, hated the people that ignored it. It was all so god damned FAKE and she hated and hated and hated...

...and then the next moment, Hinata was only left with shame.

Konoha was not at fault, yet she had tried to blame it. Konoha clung to its happy air because that was its anchor, its hope. Hinata hadn't been able to cling to this anchor, and she had tried to blame Konoha for it. Much like a child who blames her mother for his or her own shortcomings.

Her ties to Konoha ran deeper than she had ever imagined.

This thought stole the breath from her lungs, and suddenly, Hinata was exhausted. She sagged against the warm stone behind her. Naruto, who had been lost in his own thoughts, did not miss her movement.

"Hey Kaeru, are you alright?" he asked concern. The blond placed a warm hand on her shoulder. Hinata smiled wanly at Naruto and covered his hand with her own. She kept it there as she closed her eyes and rested her head back against one of the spikes of the Yondaime's hair. Warmth from the sun, the stone, and Naruto's hand coursed through her, and she felt sleepy, even content.

"I'm alright," Hinata finally answered. "Just a little tired."

"Take your time and rest – we'll leave when you're ready," Naruto assured her with a bright smile. Hinata just nodded. They sat in silence until Naruto's hand no longer felt so warm, and her own icy hands no longer trembled. Then she released her hold and opened her eyes with a smile.

"I'm ready to go now," she told him. Naruto grinned and stood, offering his hand to help her up. Hinata clung to his hand as she stood, not sure that she would have been able to stand up on her own.

"Thank you for showing me the Hokage Monument – I've had a wonderful time today," she told Naruto when they returned to ground level, still a ways away from the main streets of Konoha. He shook his head.

"No need, Kaeru. It was my pleasure. Maybe we can do this a--" He glanced at the sun and his eyes widened comically.

"Uh-oh, I'm late!!! Sakura-chan's going to be so mad!!" Naruto turned to Hinata frantically.

"I'm sorry Hinata, but I have to go to a meeting. You know, save the world and all."

"Then go, don't worry about me," Hinata assured him with small laugh. Naruto smiled gratefully and took off towards the Konoha Hospital.

"I'll see you later, Kaeru!" he called out before disappearing over the swell of a hill. Hinata waved and smiled.

"I'll see you later," she echoed softly, smile fading from her face. A cold hand had gripped her heart, and it pulled painfully.

She could have sworn that Naruto had called her 'Hinata' again. That couldn't be right. He couldn't have possibly noticed that she was Hinata. If Naruto, who didn't know her all that well, could realize that she was Hinata, wouldn't her team have noticed? Her eyes were a completely different color. She was different – she wasn't that timid little weakling anymore...right? Right?

She hugged the soft bundle of kimono and coat, tightly. The line between Hinata and Kaeru was beginning to blur. She thought she had gotten rid of her silly emotional chains from her past, but they were still there, still choking away her life. She couldn't escape. She couldn't be free. Hinata felt sick again, both from the worry over her own emotions to the worry about her possible discovery.

Impossible. Hinata shook her head. She was thinking too deeply into this. She probably just reminded Naruto strongly of Hyuuga Hinata. After all, that was who she was. Just a strong resemblance. That's all.

Comforted by her logic, Hinata felt the cold grip lessen. She looked to the sky and saw that it was around 2 in the afternoon, which meant that most ninjas would have already completed their daily duties. Knowing that she couldn't follow Naruto, Hinata decided to return to the Edge to find Kurenai and Kiba. If Itachi was near, he might trail Naruto, even though neither of their fortes laid in stealth.

Knowing that her part was finished for the moment, Hinata heaved a tired sigh and walked towards the marketplace, back to civilization.

It was a good 2 months into her escape before Hinata ventured back into civilization. The fog around her mind had lessened, and she saw that she had become like a wild animal, chained and led by her fear. She was weak, but she was also strong, and she hated what she had become – a shell of what her clan made her to be. The sickness was still there, festering inside her, but Hinata decided it was time to step forward.

Her appearance, once neat and pleasant, was a frightful mess of dirt and blood and negligence. Needless to say, the small Earth village did not take her presence well. It was with great difficulty that Hinata finally found a shop owner who hadn't immediately shut the door in her face. By then, Hinata was faint with fatigue and hunger. Yet despite her stutters, raspy with disuse, Hinata's words were strong.

"Y-you are a st-stone cutter. I...I can b-be of use t-to you," was all she told him. Perhaps the man had taken pity on this wretched creature, perhaps he had been intrigued by this wild girl's words, or perhaps, he had seen something in this child's strange eyes that others had missed for a long time...whatever the reason that day, that stone cutter opened his door for Hinata. And she stepped through it.

They never exchanged names. She called him "Sir" and he called her "Child", and that was enough to get by on.

The most striking aspect about Sir were his eyes, which were much too large for his otherwise normal face. This mutation actually gifted the man with abnormally sharp sight, a gift that served him well as a a stone cutter. But the appearance was, bluntly put, freakish, especially when he glared. Sir was a reclusive man, guarding his privacy more jealously than an imperial spy. And he possessed a terrible temper, paired with a tongue sharp enough to split stone. Perhaps for that reason, Sir's apprentices and hired workers always left, and he was always alone. Hinata couldn't have possibly described him as kind, but he provided her what she needed in exchange for her help.

At first, however, Hinata was more nuisance than aid. Despite her Byakugan, she couldn't see where a stone could be cut and it often resulted in a pile of wasted rock at her feet. And even though Hinata had been a shinobi, she was still physically weak compared to a man working with heavy stones his entire life. Sir lost his temper countless times, and each time, his verbal lashing nearly drove her to tears. Mostly, because he spoke the blunt, bitter truth, and it hurt to listen. But she stayed, for she was used to such verbal abuse, and she simply endured, for this little shop was still preferred to sprawling estates of the Hyuuga. And as she endured, she began to learn from him.

"Child," he snapped it out like an insult. "Use your eyes and look at this stone. Point to me where I should begin cutting."

Sir motioned to enormous slab of stone before him. Hinata obeyed, looked and pointed.

"Wrong!" he barked and Hinata winced. "If you begin there, this stone will not hold, like all your failures before." He gave an exasperated sigh, as if Hinata was the most hopeless failure he had ever encountered.

"Really look this time. Stop concentrating on the stone's weaknesses – look at its strengths."

She nodded and studied the stone again. Haltingly, her finger rose, pointing shakily towards another section of the stone.

"Wrong!" Sir snapped again. He was beginning to loose his patience. Sir grabbed her wrist, the first time he's ever touched her, and pushed her finger to point elsewhere.

"**This**," he hissed, "is where you cleave a stone. Can your eyes see it now?"

Hinata saw it. Those weeks of his insults solidified into the lesson he had been teaching her all along. No point on this stone was weak. So when searching for weaknesses in the stone, she found nothing and could only guess blindly. But when searching for strengths, she could now discern where it was strong, and where it was stronger. She pointed again, and her steady hand told Sir that she had found the cutting place through her own skill. His fingers flashed with chakra, and the stone split cleanly in half.

"Good," Sir said, his eyes proud, and Hinata smiled for the first time in a long while.

He taught her more than simply to see strengths and weaknesses. As the weeks blended into a blur of days, he began to teach Hinata how to perceive those strengths and weaknesses together, and discern the potential that each stone held. While one stone would be perfect as a steady pillar for a home, it would fail miserably as a graceful statue. Another would triumph as a fountain, but would crumble in defeat as a table.

Not one piece of stone that Hinata encountered was discarded as useless. It pleased Hinata greatly as she noticed this pattern of things, and she began to believe in herself again. Her stutters lessened, and her voice gained strength. Slowly, she was starting to heal.

Things settled into a peaceful routine, and before Hinata realized it, another month had passed. Three months as a missing-nin, her Leaf headband still tucked away in the folds of her old kimono, hidden under her futon. Sir didn't care that his new apprentice had shinobi skills (although frankly, he didn't care about anything other than the fact that Hinata could help run the shop). And here, no one knew of the Hyuuga, dismissing her strange eyes as a simple genetic mutation. Hinata thought that she had found her peace under the tutelage of the Sir.

Sadly, that peace was not to last.

Three months into the new life Hinata had carved for herself, she saw someone she never expected to encounter for the rest of her life.

"Shino-kun!"

Lost in her thoughts, Hinata had been so surprised at the sight of her former teammate that she blurted out his name. The masked shinobi turned, a crease of confusion on his brow before he recognized her.

"Kaeru-san," he replied in a way of greeting, accompanied by a small nod. She looked up to where his eyes should be, only to catch a direct eyeful of the afternoon sun multiplied tenfold by the glare of Shino's sunglasses. Tears filled her eyes.

"Ah," she utttered softly, looking down to wipe away the tears. Hinata had forgotten to revert her eyes back to normal last night. It made them extremely sensitive with the excess pigments in for over 24 hours. As she rubbed at her smarting eyes, Hinata felt, more than saw, the bug ninja shift.

"_You okay_?" his body language was saying, even though Shino didn't actually voice his concern.

"It's okay, the sun got into my eyes," Hinata said with a bashful smile when her vision finally stopped swimming. The crease of confusion at his brow returned, and his head tilted ever so slightly to the right, as if to ask, "_How did you know I asking that?_"

Hinata laughed lightly and met the bug ninja's eyes. Since he was a good head (or two) taller than her, Hinata shielded her eyes as she angled her gaze so far up.

"My brother talks the same way – he doesn't," she explained with another smile. It was...comfortable to be "chatting" with her old Genin teammate again. Team 8 was her second family, her haven from home. In many ways, being with Team 8 was better than being home. Kurenai was her older sister, and Kiba and Shino were her brothers. She missed them...

Tears burned at the back of her eyes again, and this time, they weren't solely because of the sun she squinted up at. Shino shifted uncomfortably again. Hinata knew he disliked tears since the scent disturbed his bugs. She quickly wiped them away.

"Here," Shino muttered. He handed her an extra pair of sunglasses. Mutely, Hinata put them on.

"Thank you, Shino-san," she said sincerely, knowing how attached Shino was to his sunglasses. He nodded and then turned to leave. When Hinata didn't follow, he looked back over his shoulder and tilted his head, before jerking his chin in the direction of the Edge.

"_You coming to the Edge?_"

"Hai!" Hinata quickly darted after him.

Most of the original Team 8 and Team 10 were already there when Hinata and Shino entered.

"Ohayo, minna-san," she greeted warmly. Kurenai and Kiba returned her greeting just as warmly. The crowd around the table parted and Hinata slipped in to a seat, that same feeling of bubbles rising in her chest to fill her heart.

Then chaos exploded around her. Someone nudged a plate of senzai buns, her favorite, in front of her. Another pair of hands poured her a glass of water, while someone else handed her a napkin. In the midst of this flurry of activity, Hinata basked in the caring attention, happy to be with her new/old friends.

"Kaeru-chan," Kurenai called. Hinata blinked. She had almost expected her to use her real name.

"Remember my precious person that I told you about?"

Hinata nodded.

"I'd like you to meet someone."

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	6. SCROLL 6

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COME FULL CIRCLE

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_by Airyo_

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Scroll 6

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"I'd like you to meet someone."

Hinata scanned the crowd the table, and failing to find an unfamiliar face, she glanced at Kurenai questioningly. She was curious as to who this precious person was. The elder kunoichi gestured and a figure that Hinata hadn't noticed before detached itself from the shadows to approach the table.

"This is Hyuuga Hanabi." Kurenai went on to describe Hanabi's relationship with her "precious person", but Hinata had long tuned her out. How could she listen when the very breath in her lungs had escaped her?

The past five years had not been kind to her baby sister. The sweet, round curve of childhood had been trained away from her face, leaving the prominent Hyuuga jaw in its wake. Even her delicate, girlish body had given way to a more angular and androgynous figure of a shinobi. Her skin was paler than before, which made her short hair seem too dark, like an unnatural shadow hovering over her shoulders. Eyes that had once reflected every emotion were now cold, perhaps even empty.

But Hanabi smiled slightly and bowed and Hinata thought she was devastatingly beautiful. And something akin to pride warmed her heart as she witnessed the power that hummed through the Hyuuga heir's body. Still speechless, Hinata returned the bow.

"You do remind me of her," Hanabi told her as she moved to stand near Hinata. The easy grace with which the Hyuuga carried herself belied the minute discomfort that Hinata found on her face.

The proud, flashy Hanabi was uncomfortable here. Then, Hinata knew what had happened. Hanabi...had learned true disappointment. She understood that she wasn't invincible, that the world can't be described in a simple equation of effort and reward. She **knew**.

For she wasn't wearing the Chuunin's vest. Fourteen, and still Genin, just like her older sister had been.

**What happened? **

Sensing the question in Hinata's eyes, Hanabi twisted the corner of her mouth. "I'm a Genin, so I don't wear a vest." She thought that Hinata wasn't familiar with ninja ranking customs. But, oh, was Hinata ever familiar with this system. How many nights had she looked down and wished so badly that she could see a Chuunin's vest on herself? Sometimes, this desire was so bad all she could do was wrap her arms around herself and try not to shatter. But then, she would remember her lack of talent for the Soft Hand Style and tell herself that the Chuunin rank isn't what she _really_ wanted.

"Let's go." Hanabi declared abruptly. Kurenai nodded. Team 8 followed the Hyuuga Heir out the door after exchanging quick farewells with Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino.

"Ano...Kurenai-san? Where are we going?" Hinata asked softly. She fell into step with the elder woman and Shino, just a few feet behind Hanabi.

"The Hyuuga Estates." Hanabi answered without even turning. Hinata kept her face empty of any surprise.

"Hanabi is taking us to meet my...our precious person. We don't get to see her a lot since the Hyuugas are a private sort," Kurenai explained with a smile. Kiba, who had been on the other side of Hinata, coughed something that sounded a bit like 'arrogant bastards'. Hanabi pretended not to hear, so Kiba continued.

"The Hyuuga think they're better than everyone else in the world, so no mere mortal can go on their estates. We have to ask Hanabi here to let us pass security. You should honored, Kaeru-chan. You get to enter THE Hyuuga estate." The bitterness in his seemingly lighthearted sarcasm wasn't lost on the group.

"Oh...thank you?" Hinata wasn't too sure on how to respond to such a statement. Kiba looked at her face briefly, and then burst out into hearty laughter. Hinata shot the bug boy a bewildered look, to which he responded with a movement that signified "_ignore the idiot_", complete with an eye-roll. She giggled. Kiba, who had finally recovered from his bought of laughter, also caught the gesture.

"How about you come within fist-range and try saying that again?" Kiba threatened with a fang-filled grin. Shino repeated the gesture, making sure to exaggerate it.

"Okay, that's it, Bugger! Come here!"

"Boys! Calm down," Kurenai scolded before Kiba could play-jump Shino. Amusement glittered in her eyes even as she pinned them with a stern glare. "You're scaring poor Kaeru-chan!"

Hinata couldn't help but laugh, deep from her belly. If feels as they were all back to their Genin days, together, innocent, and so alive. It was so easy to forget that she was here on a mission, and that she was Akegatano Kaeru, not the late Hyuuga Hinata. That she shouldn't be feeling this emotionally alive with them.

"We're here," Hanabi's chilly voice announced. The four behind her fell silent as she cleared them with the gate guards, and then led them through a series of back doors and hidden garden paths, all shaded by lush greenery. A switch activated in the group, and what formerly had been a lighthearted atmosphere had instantaneously morphed into one of solemnity.

Hinata fought the drop in her stomach. She had managed to survive being near the Hyuuga estates once today, but here she was, back again. The missing-nin inhaled deeply and calmly followed Hanabi. Instead, Hinata focused on something she was getting more and more curious about.

Team 8's collective precious person was probably Hyuuga Hinata, but she knew that Konoha thought her deceased. Not to mention there was no way her "burial plot" would be allowed on Hyuuga land. So who would she be meeting?

Finally, they reached a smaller garden tucked away in the far corner of the Hyuuga estates. Hanabi ushered the group into the fenced area and closed the old gate behind her. The garden seemed far removed what is Hyuuga, and Hinata allowed herself to relax a little.

"Kaeru-chan...please..."

The tombstone was crudely made, the obvious work of unskilled hands. But every facet had been carefully carved by loving hands, and the stone was solid. It seemed to glow in the afternoon sunlight.

She wondered why she had ever doubted...

"...meet Hyuuga Hinata."

The people there were few, but they gathered tightly around the small mound of soil. Gently, Kurenai laid a tattered and discolored headband onto the top of the tombstone. They had no body to bury, so only her headband would do. Kiba and Shino were by her side, heads bowed and fists shaking, though whether it was in anger or regret or both...one could not tell.

What remained of the Rookie 9 stood in a half circle – both Team 8 and 7 were missing a member. Only Team 10 was completely there, but even then, it seemed something was gone from their eyes. The Rookie 9 were forced to grow up 3 days ago, when Hunter Nin returned with Hinata's bloody headband. The metal plate was smashed in a way that was impossible for the girl wearing it to have survived the blow. The first death among their ranks had occurred. For that reason, it hit closer to home than all the violence that they had witnessed before.

One by one, each present shinobi shuffled up to the tombstone and whispered their goodbyes. Surprisingly enough, the most talkative ones of the group could only stand and stare sadly at Hinata's name, while the more taciturn members had much to say.

"You are a sister to me, and a comrade. I won't forget you...wherever you are now – be proud of yourself. You're a greater shinobi, and person, than you realize," Shino murmured. He went on, but it was with words only Hinata could hear. Now that her eyes were closed, she could no longer see his silent words, so he must say them for her ears. But despite all his words, and all his effort, he couldn't utter her name. That would be too much.

And all Kiba could grit out was her name. All the thoughts and emotions that raced through his head stopped at the lump in his throat, choking away his words. But her name was enough for everyone to understand, for they carried the same thoughts in their hearts.

Hinata was...a patch of warm sunlight.

Even Naruto, who was paying his respect to another who fought against the doubt of others, could understand. Even Neji, who stayed hidden away in the trees, could understand. Even little Hanabi, who silently watched from far away with her Byakugan, could understand.

That patch of sunlight, always unobtrusively standing in the background and its presence taken for granted...can be painfully missed when you turn around on a stormy day and find it gone.

"Hinata..."

She turned around at the sound of her real name. And saw a family that missed her for five years.

A family that struggled a lot because of her selfish departure. Ghost images had appeared before her mind's eye and replayed scenes that had happened here in the past, revealing what must have happened in her absence. She could see the things they must have done in order to deal with the uncertainty over someone so trusted betraying the village.

"She wasn't meant for a shinobi's life. She was too kind, too nice..." Kiba looked down a his hands and sighed, a resigned but peaceful look on his face.

"She kind of person I wanted to protect...but I know she's probably happy where she is," the dog boy said with slight smile. Akamaru woofed besides and Kiba chuckled, patting his furry comrade on the head.

"Yeah, Hinata is getting all the Frisbees, biscuits, and belly rubs she wants."

"No, she's getting sweet food, lots of nice dark corners, and a complete absence of people too large," Shino cut in, clearly repeating an old argument.

Their teacher laughed gently at that as she brushed dust away from the memorial.

Kurenai believed in the concept of Heaven. Hyuuga Hinata had also believed, though more due to blind admiration of her sensei than anything. Shino and Kiba, however, had laughed at their silly, _girlish_, fantasies.

Everything had changed the day she left.

But their memory of her hadn't.

It was solemn here, but it was also warm. Peaceful. Hinata wanted to cry.

The group did not stay long, for however close they felt to Kaeru, she was nonetheless a stranger who they've told too much to. One by one, Hinata returned the items she had been trying to return for the entire day. The sunglasses, the coat, and finally, the kimono. Three things, from three, kind friends.

"Thank you," she told them sincerely at the door. Aware of the difficulties of the Hyuuga clan, she knew her team placed a lot of effort into getting her a place of honor in a place where she had none. It was...nice. For the first time, Hinata really felt she understood everything they had done for her. So she thanked them.

They didn't realize what she thanked them for, but Team 8 accepted her gratitude graciously. Silently, Hanabi watched, eyes empty and face blank.

Hinata returned to the inn when the sun began to set. The note on her door quickly snapped her into ninja-mode.

_Kaeru-chan,_

_I'm out buying the freshest fish possible for dinner. Will be back later this evening._

_-Keikoku_

Quickly translating the message within the message, Hinata decided that she had time to take a bath before Itachi returned from a meeting with Kisame. As she gathered the needed materials, her mind began to put together a report for today. She automatically omitted the confusing aspects of her own emotional attachment, compiling the perfect ninja's report for Itachi.

The hot water was comforting and in the back of her mind, Hinata enjoyed how it relaxed her tense muscles. As much as she had enjoyed the time with her friends, it was nevertheless a tense time for her. With a small sigh of contentment, Hinata leaned back, her long hair floated in swirling lines of black around her, blurred by the warm clouds of steam.

It was a wonder that no one recognized her as the former Hyuuga Hinata, even without the characteristic white eyes. With her bangs slicked away from her forehead, Hinata looked more than ever like a Hyuuga. Her brow was high and proud, with almond-shaped eyes that glittered with intelligence. The nose and cheekbones were delicate, and the mouth soft and full, but the steady Hyuuga jaw offset the seeming vulnerability. But most of all, Hinata's current self gave her a noble presence that offset the timid way she once carried herself.

**That**, was why no one could recognize a face so clearly Hyuuga.

Even if they had the slightest bit of doubt in the past-Hinata, the people that remember her can not connect the two. The image of past-Hinata and present-Hinata meshed together was not a concept that they could comprehend. Indeed, Hinata had physically changed a good bit over the years. But mentally, it was metamorphosis.

She closed her deep, violet eyes and thought back.

Hinata had been out to harvest some opal for the Sir when it happened. What had started out as a light sprinkle had evolved to a full-blown downpour, so she opted to stay under an overlying cliff in the quarry site. That hadn't been a very good idea, unfortunately. The rain weakened the gravel and dirt that held the quarry site intact, including many large boulders near the top of the man-made cliff that no one dared to touch for fear of triggering a landslide.

At first, there was only the muffled sound of what sounded like wind. But Hinata's trained ears recognized the irregular pattern of a sword swishing through the air, along with the faint crackle of chakra – both signs of shinobi. Fear followed the path of the rain, trickling a cold trail down her spine. There were three of them, and all were formidable opponents.

Discretely, she activated her Byakugan. And then she saw something that made her adrenaline shoot through the roof.

Through the overhang, she could see three ninja, two of which were currently fighting one-on-one. The elder of the two used a strange fusion of the elements, and though it must have been a exhaustive technique, he seemed to be tiring much too quickly for someone of his power.

Hinata had glanced over and understood. The younger, and shark-like, shinobi handled an enormous sword that glowed the same color as the old man's chakra – that sword was cycling away his chakra. But even that wasn't what worried Hinata.

Instead, it was the third ninja, who stood away from this battle, with his aura so calm it seemed he had simply been out for a stroll.

Uchiha Itachi.

She knew little about him, but it was enough to recognize and fear him. The cold-blooded murderer of the Uchiha clan. And he had just discovered her presence.

She winced when the old man slumped over, his limp body making a dull, wet sound as he hit the ground. That signaled the end of the battle. She swallowed, aware that she no longer had any means to hide, now that muffling rain had also stopped. Above her on the cliff, Itachi stared down at her, Sharingan wheels turning as he studied her. He saw nothing of threat, simply a weak little Hyuuga, far away from home. But she was a witness, and all witnesses must be disposed of.

He sent the boulders on the cliff tumbling down on her.

Hinata couldn't bite back the choked shriek that escaped her throat, even as her training took over and she burst into action. But Hinata didn't completely sidestep the first boulder and it glanced off her left shoulder, dislocating it. The pain gathered black spots in her field of vision and Hinata fought to maintain consciousness. Her left arm was now useless, which made Kiwarimi impossible. The entire cliff was collapsing on her and Hinata was trapped in the valley underneath.

Another hit, and her ankle collapsed beneath her. Hinata looked up, and saw an enormous boulder rolling straight her way. She looked again, and saw all its strengths rolling in the boulder. With all of Sir's lessons swirling in a chaotic mess in her mind, Hinata threw out her good hand in desperation.

The chakra from her fingers shattered the boulder into dust.

The resulting explosion of stone scattered the hail long enough for Hinata to vault herself out of the valley she had hidden in. Panting from both adrenaline and effort cycling through her body, she faced Itachi with her eyes closed. This didn't help much as her Byakugan was still activated and trained to his feet, but it was small measure of comfort she needed. Briefly, she wondered why he painted his toenails, but that thought flitted away when his sandals shifted with a hard crunch of sand. Slowly, one foot in front of the other, he moved towards her. Hinata made no move to run, for she knew that Itachi could run faster. She had strength, but he had more strength. And that made her the weaker one.

She trembled with the knowledge, and deactivated her Byakugan.

"Where did you learn that, Hyuuga?" His tone was almost accusing.

"_That was not of the Soft Hand Style_," was what he had meant to say. Hinata could hear it. Even S-class missing-nin accused her not following the traditional family style.

That pissed her off.

"None of your business!" she hissed through her teeth. Even as her anger buoyed her, she shook like a small mouse before the notorious legend. Itachi said nothing for a long moment. Then finally...

"I wonder...why did you run away? Is it because you feel that too many responsibilities were expected of you?"

Though in question form, his words were anything but. The mind of a genius had quickly seen through the failure Hinata knew she was.

"Or...perhaps you felt that your capacity was limited by your clan?" It was strange question to be asking of someone like Hinata, but it seemed the Uchiha truly seemed curious. Her confusion must have shown itself on her face, because Itachi went on to explain in an almost smug tone.

"I know of their obsessive need to conform to the pure Soft-Hand style. So many expectations of a style so worn it would fall apart with a breath of fresh air. The lack of variety dulls their skills and the clan would become stagnate, shamefully so. That will become their downfall." Hinata got the distinctive impression that the Uchiha wasn't really talking about the Hyuuga clan at all. Even then, she couldn't quite agree with such scathing review of what had been her clan. Ever so slightly, she shook her head in the negative.

"Open your eyes, and look at me."

Hinata obeyed.

Itachi was standing over the edge of the bath, looking down at her with dark eyes. Cold shivers trickled down Hinata's spine. He showed no outward sign of his consternation; no killing intent, no coolness of the eyes, no rigid set of the shoulders, nor even the slightest downward turn of the mouth...but Hinata knew Itachi well, and he was upset.

With her, no less.

"I know the location of the transport scroll," he told her in clipped words. "We move tonight."

Itachi glanced at her form in the water, barely concealed by fan of floating hair around her. The line of his mouth hardened.

"Stop wasting your time," he whispered. "We did not come here for a happy reunion with our past." Hinata shifted. The soft splish of water of her movement seemed distant, and everything surreal, but she met his gaze full on. His Sharingan was deactivated, as it now often was when he dealt with Kisame and Hinata. There was no need for him to waste chakra to peruse the two that he knew so well.

"I realize that," Hinata replied coldly. "You accuse me of forgetting my mission."

For all her inner turmoil, Hinata was a shinobi of formidable skill and all her outward actions reflect the mission goal. For Itachi to accuse her of being counterproductive to the mission was uncharacteristic of the logical Uchiha. It also was a low blow that had very little basis to it.

"May I ask whose chakra signature shielded you from Naruto's team?" He gave no answer, though both of them knew very well whose it was.

It was a basic concept of chakra and the real reason Hinata had to infiltrate the village in person. The more interaction between two people, the more each person would subconsciously accept the other's chakra signature. In spending time with Naruto, Hinata could gain his trust as well as trick his senses into accepting a presence he would normally be suspicious of. Itachi could manipulate chakra well enough to then use a sample of Hinata's chakra and blend better into the background. And since Naruto accepted this foreign chakra, his teammates would also be more likely tolerate it subconsciously.

"Naruto accepted your chakra presence well. Nonetheless, you had no need to accept his chakra signature so fully in return. That can severely disadvantageous should you ever encounter him outside Konoha's walls. Enough to endanger the mission."

Before Hinata could defend herself, he simply turned and left.

Hinata stared where he had been, completely at a loss for what to do, or to even think. She had thought that Itachi had been irritated by the lack of substantial information they'd gathered. But that, apparently, was not the case.

As her mind struggled to yet again analyze the enigma of Itachi, Hinata mechanically finished up her bath and headed back to the inn.

Hanabi was waiting for her in the lobby.

"I want to talk to you," the other girl began without so much a greeting. Something about the cold familiarity in Hanabi's eyes chilled Hinata to the core.

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	7. SCROLL 7

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Come Full Circle

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By Airyo

Scroll 7

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"Ah, good evening, Hanabi-san. What do you want to talk to me about?" Hinata asked amiably, every bit the friendly young lady from Wave. The other Hyuuga glared at her, the beginnings of her active Byakugan playing on her temples.

"Not here, Kaeru-san." She turned curtly and exited the building, clearly expecting Hinata to follow her.

They walked in silence for a good half hour before Hanabi looked back at her. By then, the sun was beginning to set. Hinata could sense no one within a good 2-3 mile radius of the training area Hanabi had led her to, which was probably the girl's intention.

"Ano, Hanabi-san, why did y--"

"If you were truly as helpless as you pretend to be, you would have stopped following me a long time ago."

"But I am not helpless," Hinata replied innocently without so much as a bat of an eyelash. "I have learned basic self-defense maneuvers, Hanabi-san--"

"Don't," the girl snapped, "call me that. I know who you are."

"Hanabi-san," Hinata said firmly. The younger Hyuuga's jaw muscle clenched. "I know who I am as well. I am Akegatano Kaeru. What does that change about what I call you?"

"Everything," Hanabi snarled. "I saw how you looked at Team 8 - no stranger could look so guilty as you did. That would explain the resemblance, the same mannerisms...everything."

"I was touched by their devotion to the late Hyuuga Hinata," Hinata retorted shortly. Her patience was already worn by the long line of difficult events today. A persistent little sister was not helping matters.

"Hyuuga Hinata never died. I doubt she would give up her freedom so easily when she wanted it enough to become an unofficial missing-nin for it." Hinata was surprised that Hanabi had read her so well, but she kept her face schooled to a neutral expression. The younger took a large breath and continued after she collected herself.

"So stop playing games, Onee-san. I'm not going to be fooled by your disguise."

Now that she'd outright stated it, Hanabi left Hinata no room for evasion. The missing-nin smiled slightly, unable to resist letting the slightest sliver of smugness to show in her eyes.

"Very good, Imouto-chan. You've caught me. Are you going to turn me in now?" Hinata asked. Her calm expression confounded the other girl, but the Genin hid it well with another glare.

"Fight me."

Hinata shook her head.

"No, I cannot." Hanabi simply activated her Byakugan, pale eyes reflecting the waning sunlight.

"You will," she told Hinata shortly. "If you don't, I will alert Konoha on the intrusion of a missing-nin."

"You will not be able to defeat me if--"

Hinata was forced to stop her words and dodge Hanabi's abrupt attack. She had meant to say that Hanabi won't be able to defeat her if she didn't stop seeing the Hinata of the past.

Hanabi wasn't interested in hearing her words.

She swept her glowing hand out horizontally like a sword and Hinata bent back into a perfect 'n' shape. After her arm passed, Hinata snapped back upright, attacking Hinata's open defense with hands so fast they blurred. The girl's eyes widened at the speed her sister achieved despite her still sloppy forms. Hanabi found no way to evade Hinata's onslaught and performed a quick Kaiten, twisting away before major damage could be done. She then retaliated with a perfect start to the 64 Hands of Hakke. Hinata flowed around her sister's darting hands like water around rock and evaded almost every attack. Those she couldn't avoid she blocked with effortless sweeps of her arm.

With only a narrowing of her eyes as sign of her frustration, Hanabi pressed on with even greater speed. Her determination won her several contact hits. But each time, Hinata met her hand to hand, forearm to forearm, and Hanabi wasn't able to score damage. Chakra sparks flew everywhere whenever the two sisters clashed, filling the dark clearing like thousands of fireflies. Light swirled around them like motes of dust in sunlight with every move of their dangerous dance.

If only it were a dance, where the two would work together to create something utterly beautiful. Instead, this was battle, where family collided within to hurt and destroy.

Suddenly, the two of them broke away from each other and began to circle around slowly, eyes careful of every move. Silence hung swollen in the air, echoing with their heavy breaths.

The splitting crackle of a leaf under someone's foot set them off again, and they charged at each other, but a flurry of limbs and a blur of colored robes. Hanabi was even faster this time, connecting hits that Hinata barely managed to block. Gradually, the younger drove the elder backwards, wearing her defense down.

"Ha!" Hanabi screamed triumphantly and dove at the hole in Hinata's defense. There was a visual explosion of chakra...then nothing. Only the frozen image of two kunoichi locked in a standstill remained.

Hanabi was crouched below Hinata's outstretched hands, her extended finger inches from Hinata's heart.

"I win," Hanabi declared with a smirk.

Hinata returned the same smirk with disconcerting similarity.

"Really?" she asked softly. The air around Hinata's right hand wavered, and when the Hinata dispelled her genjutsu, Hanabi dropped her gaze and saw Hinata's real hand, cupped in the deceptively gentle Jyuuken stance. It rested so lightly right below her jaw that Hanabi never realized it was there until now. Three of Hinata's fingers glowed with chakra, the lingering signs of a jutsu. Then Hanabi looked up and saw that Hinata had never activated her Byakugan for this fight.

The Hyuuga Heir ripped herself away from Hinata's loose embrace.

"What did you do to me?!" Hanabi gasped, loosing hold of her Byakugan in her shock. The area under her jaw burned.

"I used a sealing technique on you." Hinata replied evenly as she straightened her disleveled yukata and regathered her hair back into a loose ponytail.

"It can explode at my command any time." At the horrified look on Hanabi's face, she sighed and allowed herself one full glare directed at the younger girl.

"Come now, I will not kill you," she scolded. "It will deactivate itself as soon as my chakra signature is outside a 10-mile radius of it. A small insurance that I can complete my mission in peace here."

"But...but why?" Hanabi gritted out. She appeared furious at herself, yet at the same time, completely, utterly lost. Hinata understood what she meant.

Why do you spare me when you have every reason to kill me?

Hinata closed her eyes for a moment and neglected to speak.

"Mercy will get you killed," Hanabi hissed after a long silence. Hinata locked her sister with a frown.

"I haven't died yet, Hanabi-chan," she said, making sure to emphasize the "-chan".

"Don't think of me a little kid who has to prove her every little insecurity," Hanabi said in a harsh whisper. But that was what she still was.

And they both knew it.

"That is the reason you remain a Genin," Hinata stated ambiguously. Hanabi confirmed her sister's theory on the situation when she bared her teeth in defense.

"I failed the Chuunin exam, yes, but it was not due to weakness, but to—" Hinata cut her off with a pointed question.

"To what? To the lack of strength? There is one reason, and one reason only that a Genin is promoted: the strength to be a Chuunin. You were not promoted simply because you have the strength of a Genin, and not that of a Chuunin."

"I won the tournament - I am not weak. My Soft-Hand technique was perfect," Hanabi explained icily. Hinata shook her head, frustrated that her little sister could not understand.

"Yes, you are not weak. But how would you fare in a fight should you were disabled of your Soft Hand technique? You are a ninja, not a samurai. There are no rules to save you." She was not condescending, even if her expression was a little smug and her tone a little impatient. Hinata was only stating a simple truth that Hanabi seemed to lost hold of. In the end, there was only enough strength to triumph...and not enough. Weakness, that subjective thing everyone sought to categorize neatly, was irrelevant.

The position of Hyuuga Heir was drowning her, if she feared what she perceived as weakness. Hanabi needed to realize that she didn't lack strength; she lacked sight. It was ironic that a child so gifted with an eye bloodline limit could be so blind. She had probably defeated everyone in the tournament by sheer force alone and not an ounce of ingenuity.

Hanabi had no answer for her.

"I never was very proficient with the Soft Hand style," Hinata continued bitterly. "I think that I confused my incapability with the Soft Hand with a lack of ability altogether...I think everybody did." She looked up at the rising moon, taking in the reflection of silvery sunlight - it was a beautiful sight. Hinata smiled at Hanabi as she turned to go. Then she paused and looked back, studying her younger sister.

"But Hanabi, don't you see? My abilities were meant for something else. All I had to do was open my eyes and see that." The seal on the soft underside of Hanabi's chin flared for a moment and she shut her eyes in pain. When she opened her eyes, the Hyuuga Heir found herself in the clearing with no one in sight.

"_You should do the same,_" Hanabi interpreted out loud.

"She's still so weak," she assured herself with a smirk, thinking of how messy Hinata's Soft Hand forms had been. But the contemplative crease between her brows did not fade until hours later.

By then, the moon had risen high enough to witness two shadows infiltrate the Godaime's office. They waited patiently for the Hokage to leave the room, and then quickly disabled the ANBU guards with a clever genjutsu. The same routine as last night. However, this time, the two missing-nin headed directly for Tsunade's personal stash of gambling tickets and shoujo manga that Hinata had passed over so easily last time.

They worked efficiently, the result of many years of collaboration. Almost immediately, Itachi located the "ticket" that was inscribed with a hidden seal for a certain scroll. Hinata memorized the seal and then the Uchiha summoned the scroll. With a soft poof, a slim scroll appeared in Itachi's hand and he made a copy. With deft brush strokes, Hinata restored the seal back to it's undisturbed form, sealing the original scroll back in. Everything was just like last night, except that there was a coolness to Itachi that bothered Hinata greatly.

There was no sign that either of them had been there when the Godaime returned. Altogether, the two were in the office for no more than 3 minutes.

"It's about time," Kisame greeted as Itachi arrived at the meeting spot set outside Konoha, with Hinata trailing behind him. He dropped soundlessly from his oaken perch to join them on the ground. "I've been bored out of my mind these two days."

The Uchiha gave him with a particularly icy glare. Kisame, well versed in art of survival, snapped his mouth shut with an audible click of fangs. Instead, he looked at Hinata curiously, a question in his eyes. The girl only shook her head slightly.

Itachi abruptly handed Kisame the scroll, a silent command to check for traps. Of the three, Kisame had the largest amount chakra, as well as the greatest sensitivity to it. There were rare instances where Kisame had been able to sense things even the Sharingan had missed. The shark man sniffed the scroll, and then rolled it around in his hands slowly.

"Clear," he said as he handed the scroll over to Hinata. She activated her Byakugan and perused it carefully. Her eyes watered with the double strain of both excess pigmentation as well as the excess chakra for the bloodline limit.

"It's clear," she agreed as she wiped away her tears. Itachi took the scroll and rolled it open. It contained a series of gibberish, which was what they had expected.

"Let's crack this thing," Kisame said with a grin that showed exactly how many sharp teeth he had.

The three of them settled for the night.

Hinata fiddled with her fingers beside the campfire. Of all things, she had just accepted Itachi's invitation to join the Akatsuki. Her injuries throbbed with each nervous beat of her heart. She already missed the peaceful existence she had with Sir.

Hinata barely suppressed a squeak when Itachi moved to remove something from his pouch. She twitched when Kisame bent down to cast a log into the fire. She jumped up a full foot when he spoke.

"We make it a habit to collect little runaways – they add such nice flavor to the stew," Kisame with a wide grin that showed exactly how many sharp teeth he had. Hinata actually believed him.

"Eh?!" she cried with wide, frightened eyes. Her hands shook in fear and she outright yelped when Itachi cut in.

"We're not going to harm you, Hyuuga. Had that been our intention, you would been dead long ago." He did not mean to comfort, but she somehow trusted his words. Slowly, Hinata let go of the tension between her shoulders and relaxed.

For a long while, only the fire spoke with a series of crackles and pops.

"What was that move you used at the quarry site?" Itachi abruptly asked. Hinata only jumped half a foot this time.

"Ano, it's not a shinobi move. It's just a technique for shaping stone," she answered quietly, eyes downcast. Kisame made a skeptical noise.

"Pfft. '_Just_'?" he snorted. "Anybody can break up stone, but I don't think you realize how difficult it is to be able to reduce a boulder to complete dust." Hinata blinked, unsure on whether the shark-man had paid her a complement or not.

"I learned it...so it's not that hard," Hinata whispered.

"If you say so, Soupy" Kisame with a shrug that showed that he clearly disagreed. Hinata twitched slightly at the name. Itachi said nothing and studied the young girl.

"Hyuuga Hinata," he finally said slowly, remembering. "You are the Hyuuga Heir." Hinata and Kisame stared at him in surprise, as Hinata had never actually introduced herself.

"I was at your 7th birthday celebration," the Uchiha explained, looking mildly irritated at the memory. "Am I not correct?" His tone dared them to contradict. Hinata ducked her head.

"A-ano, gomen...I'm not the Hyuuga Heir," she corrected. "Hyuuga Hanabi is." Itachi visibly frowned.

"My memory is accurate," he countered. A high flush appeared on Hinata's cheeks as she clenched her fists.

"You memory is right," she told him irately. "But...but...I was d-disowned as the heir. Had I not escaped, I would have been branded with the Branch family seal." She froze at the sight of Itachi's swirling Sharingan and her anger faded.

"Things have changed..." she whispered to her hands. "I couldn't change enough to keep up."

"So you're just giving up?" Itachi asked with a hard edge to his words. Hinata's head snapped up and a fierce expression filled her face.

"No!" she said vehemently. "I will change myself." Itachi nodded absently and retreated back into himself, now that his questions had been answered.

Neither of them contributed further to the conversation, leaving Kisame to look curiously between the two.

The coldness between Hinata and Itachi was suffocating, but professionalism prevented any interference that may have caused. Between the three of them, it took no more than a hour to decode the mess of codes within codes that the scroll contained. Hinata leaned back onto the tree trunk behind her with a long sigh. Her vision was swimming from the strain of perusing endless lines of text with the Byakugan. The extended use of her pigmentation technique only added to the problem. Fortunately, they had everything they needed from the Godaime's scroll. Her eyes will not be able to last another day in this state without eventual damage.

The plan was surprisingly simple: Team 7 would slip away during the later half of the parade to a trade center about 15 miles away from Konoha. There, they would join a merchant caravan and accompany it until it neared their target, the Akatsuki base, of all things. Their mission was simply to find it and gather information on the members.

Hinata felt slightly cheated, to have spent so much effort to simply confirm a plan that a Genin could have concocted. The small suspicion of a trap wavered in the back of her mind, but all the information gathered by Itachi, Kisame, and herself supported this plan. A faint ray of sunlight broke through the canopy, scattering any further thoughts. Hinata whipped her head around to realize that it was already dawn.

"Itachi," she murmured. "I think we need to return to town." The Uchiha nodded curtly. He gathered up the scroll and turned for the village, without so much at glance back.

"Wai--" Hinata started to say, her hand extended, but then changed her mind and withdrew her hand. Kisame looked down at her, an unreadable expression on his face. Finally, he patted Hinata's head.

"Calm down, Hinata," he said with a reserved smile. "You're too tense to think straight." Hinata looked at him with worried eyes.

"I wish I can," she told him tiredly. Everything was beginning to feel like to much: the flood of memories, the encounter with Hanabi, the stress of the mission, and now this stupid fight with Itachi. "I wish I can."

"Hmph, you can," Kisame corrected dismissively. "Seriously...calm down. I could care less about your little spats, but the two of you on an edge at the same time is a death sentence for me. I'd prefer not be caught in a painful messy death, or something equally silly like that. You know, looking out for number 1 and all." He patted Hinata's head again as she giggled softly and left.

Cheered by the brief conversation with her teammate, Hinata took a deep breath, letting go of all the tension in between her shoulders. Feeling more calm, she headed back to Konoha.

She followed Itachi's path back to the village. He was waiting for her right besides the noisy marketplace.

"Aniki," she called. Hinata gathered her courage and continued. "Please stop being mad. I wasn't trying to intentionally slow you down, whatever it was I did." Itachi gave her a long look, before letting out an exaggerated sigh for the busybodies who were watching them carefully.

"That's alright, Kaeru-chan," he assured her. "I'm not mad anymore. Just make sure it doesn't happen again." Hinata knew he was sincere, even if he would never put in such nice terms as Keikoku does.

Itachi took her by the hand. He tugged her towards a nearby restaurant.

"Come, let's eat. We will need our energy for the celebrations tonight."

"Yes, let us eat," Hinata agreed with a bright smile.

This wasn't the first time they fought, but each time they finally resolved it, Hinata was always surprised at just how happy she was to have gained back Itachi's favor.

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	8. SCROLL 8

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Come Full Circle

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By Airyo

Scroll 8

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A few days after Hinata joined Itachi, she was brought before the current Akatsuki members. Their dark holograms stared down at the new missing-nin.

"This is what you called us for?" one asked with doubt in his voice. He gestured to Hinata, who shifted apprehensively. The one Hinata assumed to be the leader, Pein, nodded once. His ringed eyes studied her briefly.

"Itachi will inform us further." The Uchiha made a gesture of acquiesce.

"Hyuuga Hinata was the former Heir of the Hyuuga clan, known for it's insightful doujutsu, the Byakugan. The Byakugan is capable of seeing 359 degrees around the user, as well as see through all solid objects. This, of course, includes the human body, which ultimately allows the Byakugan a full view of a person's chakra system. If trained enough, the Byakugan can see the tenketsus of the chakra system as well. Quite useful for our purposes," he explained. There were several agreeing nods from the group.

"As for Hyuuga Hinata, from what I've seen, she has good chakra control. She reduced a boulder 3 times her size to fine dust--" The figure with a high ponytail interrupted with a noise that made it clear that he was unimpressed.

"Anyone can turn a boulder to dust - there is no artistry in that, un," he criticized. Itachi spared him a glance.

"--with one touch," he finished. "Even your largest bombs are incapable of that feat."

"Certainly what you've seen is tolerable, Itachi," Pein cut in before Deidara could sputter out a reply. "But what does the candidate have to say for herself?" The nine Akatsuki regarded her with disdain.

"Well?" Pein prompted. Hinata trembled.

"I may be a Genin by Konoha standards," she began weakly. Pein's eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"That was not what I asked for, Hyuuga," he sneered. "What use are you to us?"

"I have the Byakugan," Hinata gritted out, mildly irritated, but Pein interjected again.

"We are already aware that you are Hyuuga. Is that all that'll be useful to us?"

"How should I know? You did not have enough foresight to even tell me your goals," Hinata replied coldly. There was a stunned silence, and Hinata remembered that the person she spoke so rudely to was the leader of one of the most feared organizations known to the world. She clapped a hand over her mouth, pale eyes darting to Itachi for help.

"So you are not the spineless thing you make yourself out to be," Pein said with approval. "Provided, you are disgustingly weak. But it is apparent that you possess some potential to be of use to us...namely that Byakugan of yours." Here, Pein paused as the lone female figure next to him spoke to him in low tones no one else could overhear. They conversed for several heated moments. He then turned to the group, authority in his stance.

"It is decided. Probation for 6 months, during which Hyuuga will improve herself to the best of her ability. Each Akatsuki member will personally teach and train her. Afterwards, she can be tested formally." Low murmurs filled the room at this surprisingly lenient decision. Kisame leaned over with a predatory grin.

"Normally, little kids like you are dismembered limb by limb to prevent an information leak. But I guess they have even more sadistic plans for you...why else would he require that we teach you?" he informed her casually. Hinata believed him again.

"Eh?!" she cried softly. Before she could further process this horrifying thought, Pein raised his hand and silence fell upon those present.

"Hyuuga Hinata, do you accept?" he asked. His ringed eyes bore into her own pale ones. Hinata looked down at her trembling hands. The drip of cavern water could be heard echoing in the background.

Drip...drip...

Hinata didn't want to be afraid anymore. She didn't want only the occasional burst of small courage. Naruto's face appeared her mind, how he laughed loudly in the face of his challenges and met them all head on. This was her chance.

Drip...

She made her decision.

Drip...

"Hai, Pein-sama," she said, her voice steady. The sound of water hitting stone was drowned out by the strength of her voice. Hinata looked up and met his frightening eyes with the Byakugan.

"I accept my probation."

That single sentence served to be the catalyst to a new nightmare.

The majority of the Akatsuki members were reluctant to share their precious techniques, but Pein had decreed it, and they must obey it. But Pein had neglected to mention that they must be gentle...

Hinata found herself caught in a battering whirlwind of pain, with no time to even stutter out a complain. Training exercises, harsh words, angry glares...just like before. Numerous times, the Genin would collapse and lay there, wondering if she made the wrong choice, wondering if her fate as a permanent weakling had been sealed at birth, and wondering, most of all, if change was possible at all. But then the girl remembered that she had made her choice, a decision that she was given the freedom to make for herself...and Hinata would stand back up, her steely eyes daring her sensei to do his or her worst.

"Again."

Again, she picked the pieces of herself back up. Again, she tried. Again, she poured forth her soul into it, emulating her crush and justifying her own brand of courage. Again, and again, she triumphed, and learned, and grew...and spread her wings for flight unhindered. And only when she had gained the slightest bit with one sensei, then again, her teacher would change.

Her final teacher was Itachi. He was her harshest critique, yet it was under his tutelage that Hinata improved her shinobi technique the most.

She collapsed into her seat, completely out of breath. Her limbs shook from overexertion and she wiped the sweat from her brow. Itachi stood before her, eyes dark and endlessly unreadable.

"Your test is today," he told her. "You will probably be given some sort of mission. Use your head."

Hinata nodded, pale face set with determination. She had a fighting chance and the simple knowledge of it gave Hinata strength.

"So it all comes down to tonight," she murmured. Itachi closed his eyes in agreement, features cool as ever. The routine preparation for a mission had begun and most of Hinata's earlier misgivings faded into the back of her mind.

"Hn," he agreed.

They were currently sitting at a busy restaurant in Konoha. The open sides gave them a good view of the street, where the Autumn parade would be passing by. The strained rays of sunlight indicated that it was approximately 9 in the morning.

The Uchiha seemed far removed from the low hum of chaos of the preparations around him. A fading summer breeze fluttered down the street, carrying the first crisp scent of fall.

The calm before the storm had set in more than one way.

"Kaeru-chan!" Hinata saw Naruto waving wildly from a good distance down the street. A flash of pink caught her eye and she realized that his teammates were behind him.

"Naruto-kun," she greeted with a bow. Itachi forced a wide smile to his face and greeted the enthusiastic blond just as enthusiastically.

"Hey, hey! Meet my teammates. This is Haruno Sakura," - Sakura smiled pleasantly and gave a small wave- "and this is Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke had replaced his ubiquitous frown with a cool mask, but his features still hinted mild annoyance. His eyes widened ever so slightly when he fully processed the features of Naruto's new friends, but the younger Uchiha hid it well with a polite nod to Hinata and Itachi. Had Hinata not been watching specifically for such a reaction, she would have missed it altogether. Itachi had noticed as well.

"A pleasure to meet so many distinguished ninjas," Itachi said almost reverently, making sure to grovel in a way Uchiha Itachi never would. Sasuke stared at Itachi, as if trying to connect two concepts that just weren't fitting together. He shook his head and seemed to dismiss whatever notion he had. Instead, he focused on Hinata.

"The pleasure is mine..." he said cordially, eyes never leaving with Hinata's face. Sakura looked on curiously, and then turned and slapped Naruto upside the head.

"Introduce them, idiot!" she hissed as Naruto yelped in pain. He nodded, rubbing away the sting on his scalp.

"Sorry, sorry, I forgot the other part of the introduction. This is Akegatano Keikoku and this is Akegatano Kaeru." Sakura gave them a wide smile and took Hinata's hands.

"I've heard a lot about you, Kaeru-san!" she said. "That blond idiot over there won't shut up about you. It's nice to finally meet the woman behind the legend. I'm impressed you can actually put with him." Hinata gave her an embarrassed smile, wincing at how she had worded it. It almost sounded like the pink-haired girl thought she was behind a certain notorious organization...

"Thanks," she replied modestly, her eyes downcast. "But you give me too much credit. Naruto is a wonderful person."

"Then you get even more brownie points for thinking so," Sakura declared.

"I'm right here, Sakura-chan. I hope you realize that..." Naruto grumbled, whiskered face scrunched up in an adorable pout. Hinata pulled her hands from Sakura's grip to cover her mouth as she giggled. The other kunoichi's grip was painfully strong, and it almost seemed intentional. Sasuke watched her with narrowed eyes. Itachi shifted protectively beside Hinata and took a gentle hold of her elbow.

"So are you three participating in the parade tonight?" he asked straight out. Team 7 exchanged a look and Sasuke shook his head.

"No, we're not," he answered. "We actually got assigned guard tonight." Naruto frowned and nodded his head.

"Yeah, can you believe Tsunade-baba, being so mean as to put Team 7 on guard duty when we should be showing off our skills?"

Itachi agreed dramatically.

"Not letting you ninja show off your mad skills!?" he exclaimed. "The shame, the shame!" Hinata tried not to burst out laughing at the sight of Itachi and Naruto mourning about the same thing. Sakura squinted at the sun, and then whispered something to Sasuke. He nodded and gestured towards Naruto.

"Sorry to cut our time short," Sakura explained apologetically, "we need to go with meet with the Hokage. It was nice meeting you!" She grabbed Naruto by the hair and proceeded to drag the whining blond away. Sasuke followed with a short farewell.

Hinata glanced over to Itachi uncertainly. He turned his narrow gaze from Team 7 over to Hinata – he had the same suspicions as her.

'_They're too obvious about a supposedly classified information._'

"But everything matches up. Your report, my report, Kisame's report. There is no possible way they could know of our infiltration, and even if they suspected, we have given them nothing to confirm such a notion," Hinata reasoned with Itachi later in the inn. He clasped his hands under his chin, resting his elbows on his knees.

"It could be a diversion tactic, which seems to working perfectly," Itachi commented. Hinata rubbed her temple, feeling a small headache coming on from thinking in endless loops. It could be just that, a diversionary strategy, to throw off any enemy nin since they shouldn't be so open about a S-class mission of such a magnitude. Hinata wouldn't put it past the Godaime, since Naruto seemed to be rubbing off on her in terms of unpredictability.

"We hold to the original plan," the Uchiha concluded. He looked at her and Hinata nodded. She then looked out at the sun. The parade was in 8 hours, which meant that they had over 9 hours before Team 7 left. Mentally, Hinata reviewed the scrolls she had burned into her memory, fingers absently tracing the different symbols. She licked her lips nervously. If she missed even one small stroke of ink, everything would fall to chaos. Her fingers itched for all her mission gear with Kisame. After three days, she was beginning to feel exposed without the tall collar of the Akatsuki cloak around her. Hinata tried to not fidget – 9 hours was much too long to sit and wait around, not when everything rested on the next 24 hours.

Itachi's abrupt appearance in front of Hinata jerked her out of her thoughts.

"Rest, you are too nervous," Itachi commanded. The Sharingan flared to life in his eyes and, spinning slowly, they snared Hinata's senses. She felt all her nervous energy trickle away as sleep pulled at her heavy eyelids. Her knees buckled and Itachi caught her, cradling her limp body gently to his chest. She looked up dreamily, murmured a slurred 'thank you', and then drifted away into slumber.

The sun was setting by the time she woke in the bed, feeling more refreshed than she had felt in a long time. She drew away the covers and rolled to her feet.

"Good, you're awake. Let's go," Itachi told her. He had just checked out of the inn. The masses of people waiting impatiently for the parade only made it easier for Itachi and Hinata to slip outside the Konoha walls where Kisame was waiting with their stuff.

Itachi quickly rid himself of his ridiculous disguise. With great satisfaction, from what Hinata could see, he peeled off his fake eyebrows and regathered his hair into a ponytail. Kisame, well tuned to Itachi's needs, even had a razor ready for the Uchiha so he could finally shave the first time in 3 weeks. He seemed much more comfortable with his Akatsuki cloak and hat back on.

Hinata let out a small sigh of relief as she deactivated the seals that made her eyes violet. Her eyes returned to their former pale purple, almost white color, and the small diamond seals at the corners of her eyes reappeared. She pulled on her usual black outfit under the cloak, which resembled a formal kimono cut with a fuller skirt so it allowed her freedom of movement. The crimson obi was actually the part of the enormous scroll hidden within the complicated knot at her back. Over all this, she put on the Akatsuki cloak and her hat. A sense of peace covered her, as if something that was not quite right had finally shifted back into place.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go."

The trade center was only a few miles away. But by the time the three approached the center, the moon was climbing to great heights in the sky. However, ominous clouds muted its full glowing presence. What little moonlight that did reach the ground illuminated the deserted clearing. Hinata could not shake off the utter wrongness of the scene she saw through the Byakugan.

The trade center was deserted. Not a caravan was in sight...in fact, there was no one there. The people at the trade center had been warned of something like this ahead of time.

It was a trap.

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	9. SCROLL 9

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Come Full Circle

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By Airyo

Scroll 9

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Itachi and Kisame sensed her abrupt stop. They halted and looked back questioningly at Hinata.

"It's a trap," she whispered. "Trade center's deserted."

"Shit. It was occupied a few hours ago," Kisame cursed. Hinata turned to go, only to leap back in surprise when the tree in front of her suddenly morphed into what looked like the inside of someone's bowels.

"I wouldn't say shit," someone corrected. The three Akatsuki turned to see an old man with white hair appear from the squishy wall that covered the area around them like a dome. "This is only his stomach."

Jiraiya grinned humorlessly at them. Behind him, stood all the members of Team 7: Sakura, Sasuke, Sai, Naruto, and Kakashi.

"You noticed quite quickly it was a trap – I almost couldn't catch you three," the Toad Sannin told Hinata. She gritted her teeth, glad to have her hat to cover her face. It seemed that they still hadn't realized who she was yet. Kisame shifted agitatedly, but neither of her teammates said anything.

A sudden explosion rocked the side Gamabunta's belly. The smoke cleared to reveal an unphased Jiraiya and a glaring Itachi. The hole in the wall closed rapidly, and within nanoseconds, there wasn't a single scratch on the pink surface of the walls.

"That won't work this time – this jutsu was designed specifically to prevent escape," Jiraiya explained. He motioned with his hand and the soft flesh of the walls reached out for the three missing-nin, as if straining to suck them in.

"The only way to escape is to kill me."

"Is that so," Itachi intoned. An almost imperceptible shift in his stance put Hinata and Kisame on the edge and they, too, dropped into ready stances. Team 7 fanned out from behind the old man. Sasuke, who was shooting Itachi murderous glares, and Kakashi moved to the side opposite Itachi. Naruto and Sai were on the side opposite Kisame, which left Sakura directly facing Hinata in the middle.

It was quite clear what their intentions were.

They wanted the weakest one of the three missing-nin captured alive. Too bad they were looking for weaknesses, not strengths as Hinata had learned to watch for.

"Then we will have to do just that."

Hinata whipped out multiple kunai and flung them at the Konoha nin. They dodged easily and then charged at heir respective opponents. Sakura dashed forward, fists glowing with chakra. Hinata flipped away, making sure her hat was secure. The medic nin was slower than Hinata, but if even one of her blows landed, it would be disastrous. Fortunately, the soft interior of the Toad stomach absorbed a large fraction of Sakura's attacks.

Hinata landed lightly one moment only to leap back into the air the next moment, keeping Sakura on the move. The long crimson ends of her scroll-obi fluttered like ribbons in the wind. In the background, she could hear the battle of stamina and the battle of Sharingan.

Hinata needed to conserve her chakra in this fight against Sakura, as she will undoubtedly need it to aid her teammates against such powerful opponents. She was never meant to be a outright battle ninja like Kisame and Itachi, so her chakra stores were no where as abundant.

She twisted to the side like a cat, barely avoiding another of Sakura's attacks, and then using the soft wall as a foothold, propelled herself back towards Sakura. Her speed shocked the medic nin, and that moment's hesitation was enough for Hinata to dart in between her defenses and close one of Sakura's tenketsus, and then dart back out of reach. Her left arm was now useless.

"Jyuuken?!" Sakura cried in surprise. Hinata was impressed how quickly the pink-haired girl managed to pull herself together and lash out with her right hand. Hinata dodged that as well.

For a kunoichi like Sakura whose technique was based so heavily on chakra, fighting the Soft Hand style was practically suicide. Her strength technique contained little taijutsu, relying more on the sheer force of fine chakra control. That left her vulnerable to Jyuuken, which combined fluid taijutsu with moves that could render Sakura helpless in a moment.

The pink-haired kunoichi seemed to realize this as well and she leaped away from Hinata to buy herself some time to think.

"Why do you know the Soft Hand style of Konoha?" Sakura demanded. She threw a barrage of senbon at Hinata, dashing to the side during the distraction. The missing-nin evaded them all smoothly and retaliated with a hard kick to the other nin's side. Sakura twisted away enough that the blow glanced off her useless arm.

"Answer me!"

She dodged another attack from Hinata. The former Hyuuga admired how good the other kunoichi was at evading her blows, but that would make sense since the girl was a medic nin. Rather than answer Sakura, Hinata dropped into the familiar Soft Hand start stance and watched her opponent carefully. Sakura leaned to the left ever so slightly and Hinata followed –no, that was a feint – and then corrected her movement to counter the one-handed punches Sakura shot at her direction. Several of them clipped her arms when she left holes in her defense, since Hinata never did master her Soft Hand katas. Hinata gritted her teeth and bore the pain. She moved in again to disable the chakra in Sakura's right arm.

Pain exploded across her side.

Wheezing from the force of the direct blow, Hinata retreated momentarily and watched Sakura with wary eyes. Chakra scalpels, blades that could cut inside a human body without breaking skin or cloth. They hurt like crap.

Hinata spat out the blood that welled in her mouth and leaped at Sakura. The medic nin managed to land one more rather painful cut on Hinata's shoulder before Hinata's hand brushed her right shoulder. Both of Sakura's arms were now useless without the flow of chakra. With a snarl, the pink-haired one retreated and kicked the ground hard, sending shock waves roiling across the floor. Hinata wavered, and the other took the chance to throw several kunai from the side. As the former Hyuuga dodged those, Sakura darted around behind to attack with another powerful kick, unaware that her opponent possessed the Byakugan.

Sasori had been defeated by this powerful kunoichi partly because he had so sorely underestimated her. With the help of Chiyo and a knowledge of medicine second only to Tsunade, Sakura had barely managed to kill Sasori of the Red Sand. That was 4 years ago. A lot has changed since then.

Hinata acknowledged that Sakura had improved by a large measure. But so had she. And she had the advantage of knowing Sakura's abilities.

With her hand curled like the claws of an eagle, Hinata reached around around grabbed the back of Sakura's neck. A quick flare of chakra, and the other kunoichi collapsed to the ground

"SAKURA!" Naruto yelled when he saw her defeat. Kyuubi's red chakra began to leak out from the Jinchuuriki's body. He dodged a blow from Kisame's Samehada and tried to rush over to his teammate, but Kisame intercepted him and forced his attention back to their battle.

"Stay, Naruto," Kakashi called from the far side, still engaged in a violent battle with the Uchiha brothers. The blond obeyed, but screamed his displeasure and poured his anger into a particularly large Rasengan. With Sai's own ink technique aiding the Rasengan, Kisame barely managed to block the attack with his sword. A portion of the stomach wall was blasted away. But before Hinata process the opportunity, the hole closed itself.

They had to incapacitate Jiraiya in order to get out of here. Hinata's eyes landed on the Toad Sannin. He was staying away from the fight with his eyes closed in concentration, hands flashing through seals in preparation of some large jutsu. She rolled around the pooling blood in her mouth with her tongue, pursed her lips, and spat it into the palm of her hand. Grabbing one of the long ends of her scroll-obi, she smeared it across its pristine script. Chakra collected in her hand, glowing a pale violet color. She curled her fingers like the talons of an eagle and charged for Jiraiya.

Kakashi threw her off course with a Chidori aimed for her stomach. Hinata contorted her body just in time to evade the worst of the jutsu, but the sparking electricity destroyed her Akatsuki cloak, leaving most of it in scorched pieces on the ground.

"Your fight is with me, Akatsuki-nin," he told her. She glanced over to Itachi's battle. Sasuke was still fighting him and Hinata couldn't tell if Itachi was toying with Sasuke or if Sasuke had improved enough to hold his own against his brother. Kakashi watched her his mismatched eyes, as if expecting for her to reply as many Akatsuki liked to. Hinata pulled off the remains of her Akatsuki cloak and discarded on the ground. She didn't add to the conversation, for her voice could give away a trump card that she could use later, and simply charged at the Copy-Nin. Her violet jutsu still flared at her hands.

Kakashi's speed was near Itachi's, and Hinata found it extremely difficult, but not impossible, to keep up with his blows. A large majority of them reached her body, and Hinata knew that her limbs would be peppered with large bruises if she survived until tomorrow. The Copy-Nin seemed to have realized that Hinata knew elements of the Soft Hand, as he spent the extra effort to avoid her hands. He was also trying to evade the mysterious purple chakra that still surrounded her one hand.

Seeing an opportunity, Hinata disregarded caution and attacked in a wild pattern. Kick, kick, punch, leg sweep, roundhouse kick, elbow strike, and suddenly, she simply stopped her whirlwind of offense and reached out to touch him on the arm. The purple chakra faded instantly from her curled fingers. Kakashi stared.

Then the seal began to burn and Kakashi's Kage Bushin disappeared with a poof. Hinata whipped around in time to block his next attack. He seemed shocked that she responded quickly but composed himself enough to continue the line of his offense. Another Bushin appeared, no wait, was that the real one? It was getting confusing keeping track of which was fake and which was not. The Kage Bushin incorporated a portion of the chakra of the user, so unless Hinata looked at each carefully, it was difficult for her to the tell the difference.

Could he know about the Byakugan?

Water swirled around the former Hyuuga and she leaped high into the air to the avoid the curling jutsu dragon. An odd, splashing sounded behind her and she turned midair to land a kick on Kakashi's forearm. He grabbed her ankle and threw her down to the ground below. Hinata flashed through several seals as she rolled and flipped back on to her feet, only to lean back to barely evade Kakashi's fire jutsu shooting over her. The acrid scent of burnt flesh wafted to her nose and the skin on her forehead burned painfully. With a slight grimace, she flipped back up, both feet aimed for his torso. At the last moment, Hinata twisted into a seemingly impossible way midair and her hands darted out to attack instead. Her left hand brushed Kakashi's knee before he could vault himself out of the way.

That was all she needed. Hinata formed a single seal and pumped chakra into the 1-point seal she'd put on Kakashi. Just as Hinata had planned out, his knee twisted at an odd angle.

What she didn't plan out was for the Copy-Nin to propel himself forward with surprising speed on his good leg and tackle her to the ground, a strange version of the Sharingan spinning in his one eye. That one moment of her surprise was all he needed. Time slowed and Hinata felt like she was drowning in molasses.

Genjutsu, but unlike any Itachi had ever used on her. Her entire perception of time had slowed and her limbs felt so heavy. Everything distorted out of the norm. She could see Kakashi draw back to attack, but she couldn't begin to form a seal to dispel the haze over her. Even breathing was too hard. Hinata could only watch in despair as Kakashi's fist drew closer to her too-slow body.

The burn on her face suddenly hurt too much for it to be fake and a breeze fluttered through her hair as her hat fell to the side. Hinata gasped at the overwhelming rush of reality.

Twin Sharingan eyes looked down at her.

"I-Itachi..." Hinata said shakily. The Uchiha released Kakashi's hand and the Copy-Nin dropped to the ground with a soft thump. She watched with morbid fascination as a trail of blood trickled down from the corner of Itachi's unforgiving mouth. Slowly, she raised her worried eyes back to meet his eyes, as if she couldn't understand why he would bleed for her.

The faint chirping of a thousand birds could be heard in the background and he broke their gaze. Itachi turned to face Sasuke, his movements almost...pained. The younger Uchiha charged towards them, eyes lit with the triumph of first blood.

The back of Itachi's cloak was a shredded mess of crimson.

Anger filled her chest until Hinata thought she would burst. Itachi had gotten injured in order to save her, the weaker one. He got hurt because her incapability.

She rushed out in front of her teammate, fingers tingling painfully with the sheer amount of chakra she forced through them. The chakra strings she had attached to them with her kunai at the beginning of the battle glowed and thickened.

Sasuke stopped with a choked yell of shock. He fought her with all his might, chakra pulsing in an attempt to break the chakra strings that forced him to submission. Hinata bit through the inside of her lip in her struggle to hold him and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth again. But she held firm and gradually...reluctantly, the Chidori faded away from Sasuke's hand.

Sasuke thrashed mightily until his eyes landed on Hinata. His eyes widened and he recognized her this time.

"You!" he snarled, more surprised than angry now.

It was hard not to recognize her now that she had her hair down in a version of the traditional hime haircut, with two shorter locks framing her face and her forehead bared for all to see. The style only further emphasized her Byukugan and those seals at the corners of her eyes. She even had a similar outfit as before, a black kimono trimmed in crimson and the red scroll-obi trailing to the ground like folded wings behind her.

She looked almost exactly the same as she had 4 years ago, at the time of her first mission...

Hinata looked down at Sound, trepidation in her eyes. She fidgeted with the sleeve of the Akatsuki cloak, something they lent to her so that on the slim chance that she did achieve her mission, all would know exactly who it was that eradicated Orochimaru.

"Retrieve the ring. Eradicate the pest Orochimaru," she reminded herself of her test. It was damn near impossible. Orochimaru, the rogue member of Akatsuki, was surrounded by an army of monsters. Hinata didn't even have the faintest idea where he kept the Sky ring considering that Orochimaru's severed hand still wore it and not the hand that was currently attached to the man.

A piercing sound filled the air, ringing unnaturally in Hinata's ears. It didn't belong, judging by pained expressions on the guards' faces. Using the stealth techniques that she'd learned from Zetsu, the 14-year-old used the distraction to slip past Sound's walls and into the village. It actually wasn't difficult to locate the Otokage base and silently, Hinata eased her way into the place.

The silence was frightening, for Hinata was well warned of Sound's techniques. Deliberately stepping along the empty hallways, Hinata focused her Byakugan through the walls. Her range would never quite be on par with Neji's, but her lack of range was more than compensated by the sheer detail she could see with her own Byakugan. A ripple of chakra wavered behind her and she froze, invisible under a genjutsu.

A Sound Ninja appeared around the corner and too late did Hinata recall that all Sound ninja had exceptionally good hearing...good enough to detect the steady beat of her heart and the soft woosh of her breath. He paused near her, his head tilting to the side – and a second later, it rolled across on the ground with a wet sound. Hinata closed the piercing blue eyes and set the corpse to fire.

A shrill alarm suddenly began to shriek across the corridors. Hinata jumped and then ran away from the sound of approaching feet. When the squad of ninjas arrived at the scene, there was only a small pile of ashes on the ground...

Hinata vaulted her way through the quiet halls, no longer caring that her pattering footsteps echoed so loudly. A bright flare of chakra attracted her attention and she turned to that direction, making a sharp left. Again focusing her Byakugan, the girl located the enormous source of chakra. She could distinguish the blurry silhouette of the Snake Sannin.

The sight of his blatant strength grounded Hinata back from her haze of panic.

No one else was in sight and it was her and a member of the Legendary Sannin. There was no room for the scared little girl behind her. Hinata pursed her lips and forced herself to calm down. This was her mission, her chance, her path. She didn't train so hard only to fail before the critical eyes of Akatsuki.

Hinata suppressed her chakra after laying a complicated genjutsu over herself. Swallowing hard, she eased herself through the tiny crack in the door.

"Kabuto," a raspy voice muttered. Hinata froze, invisible and heart pounding, walking towards where she stood. His amber eyes were searching, still not quite focused on her yet.

"Kukukuku...do I smell a little frightened little rabbit?" He snapped his head to the door as it opened fully.

A young man with spiky black hair walked in, his features mildly annoyed.

It was Uchiha Sasuke, she realized after a moment. The Uchiha had ran away almost 2 years ago, a little after the first Chuunin exam she failed. Why was he here? Then it struck her – Itachi had mentioned that Orochimaru had been after his Sharingan. It only made sense the Snake Sannin would go after the younger brother as well for his vessel. However, if Sasuke was anything like Itachi, Hinata highly doubted the boy would give up his body so easily.

"Oh, you," Orochimaru said. He retreated back to his large canopy bed. Sasuke glanced right at Hinata and his Sharingan appeared. An amused expression appeared on his face.

Then he attacked. Hinata couldn't hold back her gasp.

Orochimaru stared at the sword the impaled his two arms. Blood trailed down from where the blade met his flesh.

Then he smiled in return.

"Hmph, I figured it would come to this..." They exchanged further words, but Hinata couldn't hear. Orochimaru then opened his mouth and a white _thing_ leaped out of his mouth. The old body crumpled and Hinata watched in horrified disgust as Orochimaru uncoiled his true form. Sasuke turned, a bored look that seemed disjoint with the angry curse marks that covered his skin.

"So your true form is that white, scaly serpent..." he murmured, as if commenting on something as normal as Orochimaru's snake fetish. Their words faded away again. Then Orochimaru reared and charged towards Sasuke.

"Give me your body!" he roared. Sasuke easily stepped around the assault. Orochimaru's scales shifted and stretched out as more snakes. The younger Uchiha's sword flashed once, twice, and the scale heads fell to the ground. The white snake curled and more scale-snakes shot out, wrapping around Sasuke's form.

All was still for second.

Then red exploded outward, and the remains fell away,leaving an awful bloody mess. Sasuke stood amid this mess. But he wasn't Sasuke - it was a _thing_ with white hair and terrible black eyes and a parody of the wings Hinata so admired on birds.

The curse seal.

Hinata had read about in the various scrolls Pein had allowed her to peruse. Orochimaru's way of driving his victims to madness and loyalty and animality. A terrible, terrible abuse of sealing techniques.

"You'll have your chance to fly, Snake," Sasuke was remarking condescendingly, "in the talons of a hawk."

Even Sasuke didn't realize just how true his words were.

Orochimaru attacked and the nimble Sasuke avoided his every move with ease, much like some sort of bird toying with a desperate snake. Hinata watched by the door, mesmerized by this strange dance performed by two even stranger creatures. Sasuke landed back on the ground without so much a sound.

Orochimaru landed in pieces. But he was still smirking.

Hinata sniffed warily, recognizing the poisonous fumes in his blood. She covered her mouth with a sleeve, watching as Sasuke stumbled, finally feeling the effects of it.

Orochimaru hissed something triumphantly.

Hinata dispelled her genjutsu and tensed her hands into the talon formation just as Orochimaru pulled Sasuke into a different dimension. Their bodies stilled, eyes glazed, and breathing became too shallow for the conscious. Her chakra tags had reached his aura just in time.

Even if Orochimaru noticed her, he wouldn't be able to do a single thing about it now. Pein had had very extensive scrolls on Orochimaru's Soul Transfer Jutsu. Suspiciously extensive scrolls, in fact.

Hinata turned her Byakugan to Orochimaru's body, where his chakra had settled to an eerie calm. She studied the occasional ripple.

It took her several long minutes, but she found the point that could destroy everything. Hinata warily placed both her hands on the Snake Sannin's scales. Chakra rushed from her fingertips as inky script flowing from her hands like water. Orochimaru's body twitched, but he was so deep into his other dimension that he didn't seem to notice the havoc Hinata wrecked on his chakra base. The entire process took her more than 10 minutes and by the time Hinata finished her technique, she fell back onto the ground, panting for breath. Beads of sweat rolled down her face.

But it was done. Orochimaru's entire chakra system began to unravel itself.

Hinata shot a grateful glance towards Sasuke's still figure – he was the reason that Orochimaru could be distracted enough for her to complete her one trump card. But she was gambling with luck, for if Sasuke couldn't fight off Orochimaru's Soul Transfer, then all her work would be for nothing. But if Sasuke survived this encounter, Orochimaru would be the Death God's.

A chill shook through her spine and Hinata remembered that she was still in enemy territory. She barely managed another genjutsu to conceal herself by the door. Footsteps reached her sensitive ears and Hinata shook at how close her own stupidity had put her to death.

She slid out the door as Kabuto entered, a shell shocked look on his face.

Hinata's limbs were beginning to shake from fatigue by the time she had found a deserted hallway. Her Byakugan flickered in and out out sight. With trembling hands, Hinata drew a soldier pill from her pouch and forced bitter morsel down her throat. Itachi's goodbye gift, Kisame had told her.

When she stopped shaking, Hinata reapplied her genjutsu and then activated her Byakugan. Her sight fluttered from room to room, looking for the hand wearing the Sky ring on its pinky.

There. She found it.

Hinata slowly drew the ring from Orochimaru's hand. She wiped it vigorously with a nearby cloth, and then with wondering eyes, slipped it on her own left pinky.

It was a perfect fit. The Sky had been her goal and she'd reached it.

Hinata felt more powerful than she ever had in her short life. A faint, confident smile appeared on her face. Never mind that it taken more sheer luck than actual skill, never mind that Orochimaru was more than likely still alive – she did it. She got the ring they all thought she couldn't possibly be strong enough to attain.

Now she understood why some shinobi were so bloodthirsty, why people fought, why they trained so hard..it was for this brief, burning moment of triumph.

She returned to his room to check on the results of a jutsu she spent nearly 4 months developing. Sasuke was slumped against the wall out in the hall, looking almost fragile in his torn clothing. Kabuto still stood in the room, caught in the Sharingan's spell. He muttering, obviously watching a replay of the battle in the other dimension.

So Sasuke had won. Barely. The Snake Sannin would never show an underling so embarassing a fight.

Orochimaru is dead.

Surprisingly enough, Hinata didn't feel elated at this piece of news. Instead, she looked down at the bowed head of dark hair and an odd motherly pride filled her. Although whether it was for herself, or for the younger Uchiha, she couldn't quite figure it out.

"Sa...Uchiha-san?" she whispered. He stirred weakly but didn't lift his head. The dark curse seal stood out on his pale skin like a brand. It still bothered him, judging by the way chakra roiled under the skin. It was like Orochimaru's chakra and his chakra were still fighting for dominance.

Her high from achieving her mission was passing and Hinata began to feel edgy again. She looked down at Sasuke, then at the empty corridor that will soon filled with enemy nin. She looked down at Sasuke again. This time she saw more than just a dark-haired boy too far from home.

Naruto's grinning whiskered face, shinning like the sun. Sakura's glowing green eyes, Kakashi's hope and peace...Hinata had always been so good at reading people thanks to the Byakugan and the atmosphere she had grown up in. But she could have been blind and she still would have noticed how happy Naruto had been with his team. He had shone brightly at the Academy, but his exuberance only seemed to grow when he had gained a team...a family. When Akatsuki told her about the Kyuubi, Hinata had cried for a day straight and ended up nearly killed by the annoyed Sasori since she was so distracted.

She despised Sasuke for leaving so many precious people behind him. For hurting Naruto.

So Hinata left Sound with the unconscious Sasuke on her back.

That day, Sasuke gained a second chance.

Hinata gained a terrible secret.

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Hinata's and Sasuke's eyes met in silent conversation. Her hands twitched and he grimaced as her hold tightened. Carefully, Hinata edged her way over to the younger Uchiha, for they were no longer fighting for the same goal.

He fought to kill her teammate.

She fought to protect said teammate.

Hinata gripped the back of Sasuke's neck and her chakra flared. The younger Uchiha slumped to the ground, unconscious. She turned back to Itachi.

"Please turn around," she asked him. The Uchiha looked down at her, eyes narrowed.

"I'll be fine," he finally said at the hurt look that passed through Hinata's eyes. He glanced at her trembling. "You'll need to save your chakra."

Before Hinata could argue, Kisame was thrown past them. He landed with a hard thump behind them. He was back on his feet, but he was injured, judging by how he was holding himself awkwardly. Naruto and Sai landed before the three Akatsuki.

"Tsukiyomi."

Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan turned and Sai fell to the ground, writhing in silent pain. Naruto let his chakra flare out and Itachi's genjutsu hold on him wavered. That was enough time for him to call upon the Kyuubi. With painfully slow motions, Naruto let the curling red chakra to form one...two...three...four...Hinata watched with growing trepidation...and finally five tails. The blond snarled, his sanity teetering on the edge with blood-red eyes to show for it.

Before Hinata could register this sight, Naruto charged at her headfirst. He was but a blur to the missing-nin and she couldn't dodge even his most obvious attack. Hinata only just managed to turn so his fist glanced off of her side.

She flew back even as she felt her ribs crack.

It hurt to breath, and there nothing but pain pain pain painpainpainpain...Hinata struggled to draw into her punctured lung. Blood gurgled into her throat for her efforts. Itachi was now holding off the crazed Naruto, but it seemed the Kyuubi was only set on destroying her for bringing down his teammates.

She had little time. And she had no chakra left. With hands blue from the loss of blood, Hinata smeared her blood on the scroll tied at her waist. Both arms glowed a pale purple and Hinata forced herself to her feet.

She faced Naruto. His ruby eyes locked onto her pale ones, and for a moment, Hinata saw recognition in his eyes. She watched with wide eyes as he mouthed her real name.

"Hyuuga Hinata."

Then that lucidity flitted away and the fox took hold.

He charged.

At the last moment, Hinata deactivated her Byakugan and she pushed every last bit of chakra in her to her arms. Her hands burned with the overload.

There was a flash of pure agony.

And then darkn---

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**AN:** Perhaps I should start explaining myself. I used that horrible way of merging past and present because this is told following Hinata's story. Her past is blurry, and sometimes, past and present would just smear together. Now that her past and present have the reached the same point in the timeline, I can use real divisions!

**Assumptions/Research I used:**

**General Skill** (in order of highest to lowest) :

Pein, Itachi, various Akatsuki, Kisame, various Akatsuki, Hinata

Sannin, Kabuto and Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke and Hinata, other Rookie 9, Sakura, other Rookie 9

**Intelligence (same)**:

Kakashi and Shikamaru and Itachi, Sakura, Hinata, Sasuke, other people

(Hinata's intelligence stats as a Genin are higher than Sasuke's. I checked.)

**Speed:**

Kyuubi Naruto, Itachi, Kakashi, Sasuke, Jiraiya, Hinata, Kisame, Naruto, others unimportant to this chapter

**Sheer Power:**

Naruto pwns everyone else

**Other Assumptions:**

Sasuke hasn't reached his full potential as shown in the manga. He still had about half a year to go. A lot can happen in 6 months (take Hinata for example :)

I can't figure out what Kuchin means in Japanese, but the judging from the character, it means something like "void" and "sky"...I like the idea of "sky" better so I'll be sticking with it.

Other than that, hope you guys are really enjoying the story far. I might not be able to update again until Thanksgiving, but please please be patient. :) I will try really hard to update before that, though!


	10. SCROLL 10

Disclaimer: Oops, kind of forgot to include one for all these chapters. So here it is – I don't own anything that is remotely Naruto relatedly. All else, are my own ideas.

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Come Full Circle

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By Airyo

Scroll 10

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...it was night when she woke the first time. Her body throbbed of abuse and her ribs twinged with every breath. She couldn't gather the strength to even open her eyes and eventually, she faded back to the sweet oblivion...

...the next time she became aware of the world was during the day, for sunlight battered against her eyelids and she grimaced and turned to bury herself further into the covers. Her ribs no longer hurt and instead, her skin itched of regrowth...

It was a week later that Hinata finally opened her eyes and realized that she was in a hospital.

A hospital in Konoha.

It took her moment to recognize the inside of a high-security recovery room. The room would be bolted shut, and judging by how cold her limbs felt, they'd injected her with some sort of drug to stem her chakra flow altogether. She was even chained to the bed.

Hinata was helpless. Konoha had taken every precaution.

The door opened and Hinata quickly closed her eyes, immediately calming her breathing to the slow, steady pace of someone asleep. Her ears could barely detect the footsteps of several high-level shinobi as they entered the room.

"You can stop pretending now," commanded the cool voice of the Godaime. Hinata sat up, regarding the entourage with blank features.

The Godaime stood in the middle, arms crossed and eyes stony. To her left, was Jiraiya, looking sickly and exhausted, as if he'd just survived a particularly harsh bought of disease. On the Hokage's right, stood Naruto, with one of his arms bundled up in a sling. And finally, looking still too proud, was Hyuuga Hiashi.

The Hyuuga Head studied Hinata. The icy expression on his face became even more forbidding.

"That is not my daughter," he sneered after several minutes. Hinata tell that it was a clear lie. She let an uncharacteristic smirk pull at her lips – that was one of the greatest praises the Hyuuga Head could have given her. But inside, she didn't feel nearly as confident as she pretended to be and her courage quavered. Hiashi's presence foreshadowed terrible things for her...though what things, she didn't dare guess.

Jiraiya cleared his throat. For once, he looked his age, his shoulders bowed and his face creased with lines of exhaustion. But he was still a Sannin of great capability, as demonstrated by his strong words.

"Don't be stubborn, Hiashi. That is the only viable explanation for a person like her," he countered. In his hands, Jiraiya held the newest edition of the bingo books.

"The moon-like eyes, how she fights as if she has eyes in the back of her head, the strange technique that partially resembles Jyuken..." Jiraiya read. He then closed the book with a snap and continued speaking.

"...and considering what she did to the members of Team 7, if fits. With the Byakugan, it would give a person certain advantages in working with chakra seals. And there are_ those _matters, even though they refuse to disclose the full details of it...all clues match her description."

"The Chitsuki-hime, my daughter? The Blood Moon Princess?" Hiashi asked skeptically. The 'Chitsuki-hime' comment only confirmed Hinata's sinking feeling. When a ninja in the bingo books was unidentified, he or she was often given a nickname, which was why she hadn't realized she was in the book in the first place. But now that Hinata thought on it, the name was obvious; the way she used blood to summon her most powerful moves, the moon-colored eyes, the formal kimono she always wore...they had known of her existence all along. The entire mission had been a ploy to lure her team in.

Kisame and Itachi...Hinata swallowed hard as her chest compressed with agony. What happened to her teammates? Her hands shook and she gripped the covers. There was only one logical conclusion – execution. Kisame and Itachi could be easily confirmed, but they must have brought Hiashi in to identify her before her execution. Images of the fight flashed through her mind and Hinata loathed how she was still not strong enough. Weak. Weak enough to cause the fall of her comrades. She bit back the angry scream that tore through her, for her enemies were still in the room.

"It's impossible," the Hyuuga was scoffing. "Not to mention, Hyuuga Hinata is dead."

For once, Hinata was glad that her father had so little faith in her abilities. But she couldn't resist interjecting, if only to rub it in that man's face. Since they were going to execute her anyways, Hinata wanted everyone in Konoha to remember the girl they had no faith in and see the woman who could hold her own against members of ANBU.

"Depends on what you define as 'dead'," she said silkily. Four pairs of eyes whipped to her side of the room.

"What...did you say?" Hiashi finally sputtered out, as if the words were being dragged from his mouth. What confused him the most was that he could tell Hinata wasn't bluffing. She smirked as Itachi would and glanced at the Hyuuga Head condescendingly.

"Did you not hear me, Hyuuga-_sama_?" The honorific was twisted into an insult on her tongue. All the venom that had built up in her heart for that man poured forth at this moment.

"You must be going deaf in your old age: I said 'Depends...on...what...you...define...as...'dead''," Hinata drawled. The minuscule twitch to Hiashi's jaw was highly satisfying. She'd successfully gotten under his skin. Hinata was almost disappointed when Tsunade put a stop to her last bit of fun.

"Tell us what you mean by that," the Godaime demanded. Despite a less-than flattering reputation as a drunkard and a gambler, she cut an intimidating figure. Hinata shrugged languidly, putting on a cloak of faked nonchalance that Kisame would have been proud of.

She tried not to think on what had happened to both her comrades even as she channeled aspects of them through her actions.

"Exactly as you take it to mean – Hyuuga Hinata is dead in one sense, but alive in another," she explained vaguely. Hinata could see why Kisame enjoyed baiting his opponents so much. The sheer frustration the others tried to conceal was almost amusing.

"Then do you confirm that that you are Hinata?"

Jiraiya had caught on to what Hinata meant. She'd renounced being a Hyuuga several years back, so for all purposes, Hyuuga Hinata was dead. But the person that had been Hyuuga Hinata? She lived and grew and evolved. Childishly, vindictively, Hinata wanted them to realize this fact.

"Yes," she confirmed with a triumphant parody of a smile. Hinata loved the shocked expression on Hiashi's face. Tsunade placed a hand on the Hyuuga's shoulder and the man nodded slightly, brows drawn into a frown. Then the Hokage looked at Hinata and walked towards her.

"Then Hinata, formerly of the Hyuuga clan, current Akatsuki member and known as the Chitsuki-hime in bingo books..." Hinata readied herself.

"You are hereby sentenced to the death penalty for treason and conspiracy."

That was what she had expected the Godaime to say. It took her moment to process Tsunade's real words.

"You hereby reinstated as a Konoha shinobi under probation until further notice."

The full implications of it dawned on Hinata. Wild despair overtook her and she began to fight her restraints.

"No!" she cried. The Godaime shook her head.

"I'm afraid you have no choice in the matter."

Hinata strained against her bonds even as Naruto and Jiraiya tightened them, forcing her to lay back down on the bed. Soon, no part of her body could move save her head.

"No, no, no, no, no..." Hinata moaned, shaking her head back and forth. The Godaime gripped the sides of her head and ceased her movement. Hiashi bent over Hinata with an inked brush in his hand.

A high whining sound escaped Hinata's lips as she felt the brush on her forehead. She felt the x, the curved lines...she felt every stroke of the Caged Bird Seal.

Hiashi flew through the hand seals. The seal burned and Hinata felt the pain from the sealing, the pain for the wings they ripped away from her. Everything was being brutally torn away...gonegonegoneawayeverythinggone. A pair of Sharingan eyes flashed before her and then a different kind of pain ripped through her.

Gone.

No one came to her aid.

Everything was gone.

Hinata let out a scream so raw that her throat bled.

Then the only thing she had left was the tearless sobs wrenching through her bleeding throat and the strange emptiness in her chest. So deep was her hysteria that Hinata didn't notice the three elder shinobi slipping out the door, leaving only the blond looking down at her wretched form with blue eyes.

"Hinata," he said in a low voice when her sobs had faded to soft weeping. Hinata abruptly ceased her cries to an eerie silence, her body frozen. She kept her eyes closed and did not acknowledge him. The numbness settled in and it smothered her, until she could feel nothing but the physical proof that she still existed: the bed against her back, the shackles on her limbs, the rattle of air through her damaged lungs. She felt the small movement of air as Naruto shifted uncomfortably. Then she felt the loosening of the vices that held her immobile. The girl didn't move, though, even when given the freedom to.

"Ah...I'm sorry, Hinata," he whispered, paying tribute to her stony silence. A long sigh escaped her and the newly-made Leaf kunoichi opened her shattered eyes.

"I'll take the bad news first," she told him hoarsely. "Please at least make something up for the good news." Naruto nodded slightly and pulled up a chair to her prison bed.

"Your seal is has different premises than the normal Branch family seal – yours binds you specifically to my chakra. You will not be able to wonder more than 3 miles from me, nor will you be able to hurt me without those same wounds reflecting back onto your own body. Only Tsunade-baba and I can use the the submission seal to subdue you should you act up --"

A gravelly laugh rose from Hinata's bloody lips.

"I wanted the bad news first," she explained when Naruto looked at her with worried eyes. The blond didn't understand and continued mechanically, as if he had memorized this little speech.

"Hiashi does not want a scandal from the fact that his eldest daughter returned as a criminal, so you will now live under the name Hyuuga Kaeru, a branch family member who has returned from a long training mission."

Hinata winced at the irony of it all. All that she sought to escape had been forced back into her arms and all that she fought to keep had been ripped away from her hands. The Hyuuga name was something she wanted to be rid of, but she'd been renamed a Hyuuga. Her own name and her freedom, both precious precious things to her, were both obliterated. Gone. She was back at where she began, stuck on the path of a circle. And as if to rub it in, her new name was the very alias she had adopted before. It meant "transformation". But as to what kind of transformation...that had never been specified.

And Hinata knew now she was transformed for the worst.

Naruto lapsed into silence again, a rare feat for the usually talkative boy. Then he swallowed and willed himself to speak. Determination shone in his eyes and Hinata was reminded of the 12-year-old she had once loved.

"Hinata, I regret that you were treated so harshly because I still believe you're a good person." His resolve seemed to waver and he looked away.

"I understand what it's like to want to run away...and sometimes, I admire your courage for actually going through with it." Hinata's eyes widened at this confession. Even knowing about the Kyuubi, she never guessed that Naruto, happy bright Naruto, the sun of the world, could think about running away and going against his famous ninja way.

"But," - his eyes hardened and snapped up to capture her gaze - "I have my precious people to protect, and you are an obstacle to that goal. I**will** use the submission seal if I need to."

"You want me to unseal your comrades," she guessed flatly. He nodded resolutely.

"I cannot --"

"You will!" His hands came up to form that horrid, familiar seal. Hinata shook her head tiredly even as she shrank away from the thought of it.

"Shut up, Naruto-kun. Let me finish," she whispered. The blond lowered his hands, watching her with accusing eyes. "I cannot wake them if you do not release me and give me the antidote for the anti-chakra serum."

The anger leaked away from his body.

"Oh," Naruto said simply. Hinata laid back down on the bed and closed her eyes as the blond left to the get the antidote. When she heard him return, she extended one arm to him without opening her eyes. His hands, as always, were warm, and almost gentle as he injected her with the antidote. Heat seeped from his hands through her limbs as the antidote began to do it work.

"It'll take about an hour," he told her.

"I know."

The hour passed with a silence so loud Hinata's ear's hurt. Naruto's watchful gaze never wandered and Hinata briefly considered gouging his eyes out, even at the expense of her own, if only to get him to look away.

When her fingertips tingled with the feel of chakra, and Naruto grew restless, Hinata willed herself out of her safe cocoon. The white hospital gown she wore washed her out, so that the contrast of her pale skin and night hair made Hinata look otherworldly. The airy material of the gown only further emphasized a certain ethereal, haunting quality to her; she was an angel grounded to mortal Earth only by the glaring seal on her forehead and the broken eyes of a human ghost.

"Lead the way," she whispered.

Sakura was in the nearest room. She lay in seeming slumber, features relaxed and all wounds healed by loving hands. A beloved, blooming blossom. At one point in time, Hinata may have felt envy, or even appreciation, for the tender way Naruto took Sakura's hand. She only felt fatigue. Emptiness.

Unaffected by the blond's impatience, Hinata shuffled her way over to the pink-haired girl and slid a hand under her head. Placing her free hand on Sakura's wide forehead, Hinata unlocked the seal that was attuned to only her chakra.

The effect was immediate. The sleeping girl's eyes fluttered open and large green pupils wondered about the room, momentarily confused before they landed on Naruto.

"Naruto?" she asked. Naruto attacked her with a large hug and loud laugh. Hinata retreated to the doorway, looking past the reunited teammates with unfocused, patient eyes. Eventually, both of them decided to go as Hinata released Sasuke's seal.

She repeated the same pattern with the Uchiha. Her chakra flowed into the seal and he woke with a gasp. Angry, black eyes snapped to her own and Hinata looked away. Instead, she reached for Naruto's bandaged arm. He jerked away, watching her with wary eyes.

"Don't you wonder why you can't summon chakra in your arm anymore?" she asked. The blond stared at her, his mind obviously racing to connect what he thought was chakra overload to Hinata's seals.

"I am capable of more than one kind of seal," she tonelessly answered his unsounded question. Again, she reached for his arm, and this time, he let her unwrap the layers of gauze. The violent color of his burnt chakra pathways could be seen through his skin. Hinata briskly turned his arm over and pressed a single finger to the tiny seal nestled among the angry bruised lines. Right before her eyes, the discoloration pulled back into the seal and within minutes, the seal had faded away. The Kyuubi vessel regarded his arm with wondering eyes, as if the very motion of opening and closing his hand was a miracle in itself.

Hinata made sure to ignore Sasuke's and Sakura's perusing gazes. Judging by their reactions, they had not been informed of her true identity for some reason or another. Hinata suspected that Hiashi had a hand in that. No matter how she tried, she always seemed to bring shame to the family. Rather than be saddened by such a fact, Hinata mechanically filed it away like any other piece of useful information.

"My job here is done," she told the floor. Hinata turned to door, only to be interrupted by Naruto's voice.

"Where are you going?" the blond called after her. She did not have to look to know that he had the submission seal ready. "What about Kakashi-sensei and Sai?"

Hinata kept walking, and the area behind her eyes began to pulse with warning pain. Her vision swam and she discreetly gripped the door frame to keep from falling.

"There nothing I can do for those two – Itachi's Tsukiyomi can only run it's course," she said. Then she exited the room before anyone on Team 7 could say another word.

The Godaime was standing outside, watching Hinata with an unreadable expression. She ignored her obvious presence and brushed past the Hokage to continue her way down the hall. Tsunade didn't say anything as she slipped back into her room.

Hinata only felt relief as she climbed back into the operating table turned bed. Finally, alone, even for a few moments. Removed from it all and isolated from reality. Hinata twisted her body, burrowing deep into her covers. She pulled the blanket high over her face and closed her eyes. That dampened the antiseptic smell enough that Hinata could pretend that this was all just a very bad nightmare.

Any moment now, Itachi or Kisame would come and wake her up, telling her that is was time to attend a meeting, or to leave for a mission...and then that horrid, numbing pressure in her chest would dissipate and she could be alive again. She tried to ignore the fact that Konoha would not be so foolish as to leave Itachi and Kisame alive. Hinata fell into a half-doze, where her foggy mind almost believed her wishes.

Perhaps it was a day, or two, later that her half-oblivious state was interrupted.

"Chitsuki-san."

She opened her eyes, irritated that she had been pulled from such a nice fantasy.

Sakura smiled shyly at her. Hinata closed her eyes and turned her back to the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Sakura-san, you shouldn't be here," she told her tiredly. "And please don't call me that."

"Chi--Hyuuga, just listen to me," Sakura reasoned. Hinata said nothing and silence held for too long. Finally, annoyed with how the pink one was invading her isolation, she sat up and looked at Sakura.

"Well?" Hinata prompted. Sakura smiled at her brilliantly and bowed.

"Thank you," she told the Hyuuga sincerely. "Thank you so much, Hyuuga-san." Hinata waited, but Sakura refrained from saying anything. It then that Hinata realized that Sakura wasn't actually thanking her for listening.

She was thanking her for the return of Sasuke.

"I have nothing to do with it," Hinata finally dismissed and turned to lay back down. However, the other kunoichi didn't leave, and only stood there smiling her silly, naïve, little smile.

"Thank you, Hyuuga," she said again. Sakura wanted Hinata to acknowledge her gratitude. Hinata wanted to punch her.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked, pale eyes narrowed in hostility. Obviously, Sakura hadn't been informed of exactly who she was thanking. "Do you realize what you've done to repay me?" Sakura seemed confused.

"You're Hyuuga Kaeru, nuke-nin of Akatsuki, Chitsuki-hi--" Sakura's voice faded at the sight of Hinata's furious expression. At that moment, Hinata thought that if someone had decided to deal Sakura a painful death, she wouldn't lift a single finger to help Sakura. One would think she might try to deal said painful death herself, but Hinata couldn't even muster the energy for that kind of hatred. Instead, she simply gestured to the exit.

"You understand nothing. Get out."

"But--"

"Get. Out."

Sakura refused to budge.

"Thank you, Chitsuki-sama. Thank you. Aritgatou."

"Out."

"Thank you."

Sakura's green eyes burned resolutely. She was persistent, if nothing else. And for one moment, Hinata found the energy to loathe the blossom for being so beautiful and beloved and god-damned perfect.

"Thank you."

"You're fucking welcome," Hinata snarled. The empty vase at her bedside shattered. To her credit, Sakura didn't step back from the explosion of angry chakra from the Hyuuga's fingers. Instead, she bowed and smiled and left.

With the pink one, Hinata's brief flare of human emotion also left and she was left with nothing. She covered herself with the covers and tried to force herself to cry. But you can't cry because of nothing, and Hinata withdrew into herself to avoid that terrible nothingness inside her.

But in a way, her numbness did come to help her. Ibiki took her away for several days, and tortured her broken shell in a sad attempt for information. Tucked away inside, Hinata registered nothing and held her silence steadily. Finally, the Interrogations captain gave up and returned to the room. Hinata simply burrowed herself into the unwashed covers and closed her eyes.

And so, hidden away from the world, Hinata laid there for 3 days. She remained unresponsive to the efforts of any Konoha nin, even Naruto who had started to bring her a lunch tray every afternoon. She left it untouched, immersed in world that held no room for human sustenance.

On the 4th day, Hinata dreamed of Itachi.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Itachi?" she whispered. His hologram figure walked to her bed and Hinata sat up, barely able to support herself with weak arms. The healing wounds on her body stood out in sharp contrast to her too-pale skin.

"What are you doing?" he asked again, a curl of anger weaving into his tone. Hinata looked down and hugged herself, doing everything she simply not to break.

"Go away. You're not real," she said more to herself than to Itachi. He didn't say anything for a long while, and simply stood there.

"Please..." she murmured. "Just go awa--"

"Hinata, look at me."

Against all reasoning, something in his voice made Hinata obey and she met his crimson gaze.

"You will cease this silly tantrum," Itachi told her. "Had I come any later, you might have completely destroyed your body, and any usefulness along with that. Jiraiya did not have enough chakra to hold the two of us after you were knocked unconscious and taken away by the Kyuubi vessel. I am not dead. Nor is Kisame." He paused and Hinata realized that his eyes were now focused on her seal. For several seconds, he didn't say anything and she thought he would fade away back into reality.

"I apologize that you must suffer through this, Hinata." He sounded almost...regretful. She met his eyes disbelievingly, angrily, as if to say_ 'what would you know_?' Itachi's red eyes narrowed warningly in response.

"You forget who you are. We Akatsuki do not give up what is ours so easily." Hinata looked away and pursed her lips. His statement did little to comfort her.

"We do have a use for you here," Itachi explained. "You are to fully integrate yourself in the Kyuubi's life. Now that they've given you no way to escape their clutches, they will most likely to trust you."

"But...but how will I ever be able to leave Konoha again?" Hinata asked in a small voice. It gave her hope that she was still of use to the Akatsuki. But what happens after her usefulness had expired? Itachi silenced her with a glare.

"Need I repeat myself?" he inquired with a warning tone. "The Akatsuki does not give up what belongs to it."

And then, so softly that she couldn't quite tell whether it was real or not, came his next three words.

"Nor do I."

But she did, and for the first time in a long while, real tears trickled from Hinata's eyes. She gave Itachi a shaky but brilliant smile, and he did nothing but watch her.

"Thank you," she told him, her voice regaining its strength. "I know my mission. I will carry out my mission."

Itachi nodded, reverting to his original state of taciturnity.

"I will check back." He leaned over and Hinata felt the barest brush of skin on her lips.

And then he was gone.

She touched her lips and curled back under the covers. Hinata finally fell into a truly peaceful sleep for the first time in many, many days. A smile curved her lips even as she slept.

She woke when Naruto stepped into the room at the same time he did everyday. As usual, he had a tray of food with him. This time, rather than ignoring it, Hinata reached for the tray and forced herself to ingest the bland slop the hospital offered. Naruto said nothing and simply left with the tray after she had finished.

He did the same for 3 days before she spoke to the blond again.

"Thanks," she told him shortly as she handed the empty tray back to him. He jerked in surprise.

"You're welcome," he replied. Hinata immediately regretted her small courtesy when he didn't leave, but remembering her mission, she forced herself to face him.

"You're scheduled to take the ANBU exam in 3 days," he informed her.

"Oh," Hinata said. Her mind whirled at the opportunities. She hadn't expected such a sudden change of status, but it had been inevitable, since her seal limited the distance that could be put between Naruto and herself.

Hinata smiled at Naruto.

"Very well. What time?"

She had a mission to complete. She will bide her time.

And when the time was right, she will grow new wings and _fly_...

Hinata looked forward to that.

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I might have vaguely mentioned something regarding Thanksgiving, but then I was happy that I hit 180 reviews (my original goal for this story) that I went and finished this in one sitting. Right when I should be finishing up some calculus homework (gah).

This is an inevitable filler after such an action-packed chapter...if you have any questions about what the heck is going on here, e-mail me (or review me :), I like reviews) and I will answer them provided that they don't give away the story.

And see? No flashbacks. But if you have any other problem with my writing, feel very free to critique me. Critique is very good. Flames are okay, too, since it is very cold here in the dorms.

Which reminds me, I need to get back to the homework. Please excuse how rough this chapter is.


	11. SCROLL 11: Arc II

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. No money comes from this endeavor and all lawyers should kindly turn the other way and track down people who actually do harm to society instead of bothering a poor college student who had massive amounts of LEGAL debt in her name. (puppy eyes)

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Come Full Circle

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By Airyo

ARC II

Scroll 11

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Hinata almost failed the ANBU exam.

The intelligence test was simple. Sure, she was no genius like Shikamaru, but she had 10 times the S-class mission experience than any of the other hopefuls.

The psychological test, however, was a tad more difficult. Konoha liked to make sure that their ANBU were at least partially sane before they started the downward spiral of bloody missions. So most of the test involved Hinata identifying strange splotches that all looked like mutilated body parts to her. And when asked just how those mutilated bodies came to be like that, Hinata gave them accurate descriptions of the techniques used. She had actually encountered many battles where the results looked exactly like those weird pictures. But judging by her score (14 out of 250), that wasn't exactly normal.

And even though her highest score came from the physical portion, Hinata found that section the most trying part of the exam. For the final part, each candidate would spar with a current member in front of a panel of judges. Considering how her luck had been progressing, Hinata wasn't all that surprised when they announced her opponent to be Hyuuga Neji.

At first, the other Hyuuga didn't recognize her. The Hyuuga was a very large clan, and even the most social of Branch family members didn't personally know all the other Branch members.

"Hyuuga Kaeru vs. Hyuuga Neji," the Godaime announced from the other side of the arena. With her at the judge's table sat Jiraiya, Ibiki, the newly awakened Kakashi, and Sasuke. The Uchiha's presence was explained by the captain's cloak that he wore.

"Kaeru-san," Neji greeted coolly with a bow. Hinata bowed in response, trying not to fidget with the hem of the simple Jounin outfit they lent her. The dilemma facing her made her restless. Should she reveal to him that she was Hinata? It was inevitable that her cousin would figure out who she was. If nothing, the coincidence of her alias would be lead him to the obvious conclusion. If she surprised him early, it would at least give her an advantage in this spar.

"Neji-nii-san," she greeted, making up her mind. "Thank you." His eyes snapped to her face and watched her suspiciously. Hinata smiled how the old Hinata would have smiled, eyes downcast, and he remembered who she was. Akegatano Kaeru, a distinctly un-Hyuuga girl who seemed to have suddenly gained the Byakugan...the dots connected in Neji's mind.

"You may begin," Hinata heard someone say distantly in the back. She only watched Neji carefully as he struggled to reign in his emotions.

"You...I thought you were..."

Hinata dropped into a ready stance, not a hint of the Soft Hand style in her form. The shock had her opponent unbalanced enough that she just might win this one.

"No, I'm alive, thanks to your help," she told him sweetly.

Then she attacked. She had never wanted to see Neji ever again, for he was a mark of her weak, weak past. She had never considered them friends. She had hoped that the last time she would encounter him had been during her role as Akegatano Kaeru. She wanted this over with.

Neji pulled into a Kaiten and Hinata had to twist away to avoid his swirling chakra. Instead, she readied herself to dart in that one moment that Neji took to reorient himself after Kaiten. He evaded her kicks so easily, and evaded her hands with only a little more effort. The other Hyuuga was fast. He managed to reach out and lock away the chakra in Hinata's left arm. She retreated and watched him carefully.

The two of them faced the other, both breathing slightly harder. Neji's face was forbiddingly blank. He raised his hand and Hinata recognized the beginning of the 64 Hands of Hakke. The image of Hanabi in the same stance flashed through her mind and the fight with her sister sparked a crazy sort of idea. Hinata already knew that they would pass her regardless of her performance on this test since Naruto was indispensable on the field and the seal only allowed her only a 3-mile leash from him. Her S-class status only sealed the deal.

So rather than evade his attacks, she stepped right in to the center of his attacks and elbowed them away with her chakra-less arm. Even then, she couldn't block most of those attacks, so Hinata angled them off of her body so certain chakra points remained open. Only a Hyuuga, who knew exactly where he would hit, could have managed this feat.

Her right hand brushed his chest.

Neji jerked backwards and landed roughly on the ground in his surprise. With wondering eyes, he wiped away the blood that trickled from the corner of his mouth, only to leave a long streak of crimson glowing against his pale skin.

"Payback for the Chuunin exam," Hinata whispered with surprisingly little venom. Then her battered muscles failed her and her legs gave out from underneath her.

"You can stop," Ibiki could be heard in the background. Neji stood and then hauled Hinata back on her feet.

"Hyuuga gardens, two hours," he hissed as he supported her out the stadium gates and deposited her there. "You owe me an explanation."

Hinata gave no response and shouldered past him, using the wall as support. He watched her go without a word. But she still showed up, exactly one minute late.

"You passed," Neji told her flatly when he sensed her presence. She dropped soundlessly to the ground and seated herself on the stone bench facing the other Hyuuga. The hospital staff has probably noticed her absence by now, so Hinata had about 5 minutes before ANBU would be sent to take her back to her room. That was 5 minutes too long.

"I owe you nothing."

"Not me," Neji acquiesced. He closed his eyes, and for a moment, Hinata thought he looked eerily like Hiashi. Neither of them moved but the distance between them lengthened by several leagues.

"Then what about your sister?"

The distance only grew with his words and Hinata mentally willed that the ANBU would appear soon. She didn't want to be here. The folds of Hyuuga tradition were wrapping around her thin shoulders and the world was suddenly too heavy to hold. It was always about her sister. Even cold, apathetic Neji cared about her.

"What about her? Why do you even care?" she whispered, hating herself for becoming so weak with just a few words from Neji.

"You fought her, didn't you? She locked herself in her room for 4 days the day after I met you." Hinata willed her pained expression back a neutral, bored expression as she listened to Neji robotically churn out more numbers.

"She's taken 8 missions over the past 2 weeks, 5 of them C-rank. She hasn't slept more than 2 hours any night. The servants have seen her eat a total of zero meals." Hinata's breath froze in her lungs as she processed the information. Shock had snapped her back to reality, only a few meters from a young man worried about his cousin.

"Kaeru-san." The ambiguous form of an ANBU on duty appeared besides her. "I suggest you return to the hospital." Hinata let out a long sigh and got to her feet, still a little bit unsteady. For the first time that day, her eyes met Neji's. They held no anger towards her. She would have felt better if they had. Hinata broke the gaze and left with the ANBU.

The walk back took no more than a few minutes, but as Hinata entered her room, she felt utterly, complete drained. A myriad of thoughts flickered through her mind, not one of them completely coherent. The image of Hanabi, thin, worn, and beaten kept appearing before her eyes, and that sad picture made her doubt reasons she had once been so sure of. Neji hadn't been lying. What upset her even more was that he obviously wasn't finished on Hanabi's alarming condition when the ANBU had interrupted. The rather clique phrase 'Be careful what you wish for' floated around in her head. Her baby sister's broken eyes followed.

Shaking her head to remove these thoughts, Hinata forced herself into an uneasy sleep. She felt like the blankets were strangling her.

Naruto barging in like a beam of sunshine woke her up to the watery streams of dawn that filtered through the blinds, and Hinata breathed a small sigh of relief.

"You passed! You're ANBU now!" The blond had a mostly genuine grin on his face and he waved around the sheaf of papers in his hand excitedly. Things were still a bit awkward, since no matter how she looked the situation, Naruto was still the jailer, and her the traitor. It then occurred to Hinata that Naruto was probably excited by the thought of another mission, considering that he'd been kept in Konoha for almost a full month. She returned it with a less fake smile.

"I'm glad," she said truthfully. "Am I getting discharged?" The blond nodded eagerly and handed her the stack of paperwork, bouncing on his toes. His energy filled the room like a burst of light and Hinata loved him for it. The scratch of pen on paper wasn't as grating on her ears as when she had filled out paperwork before.

"Where will I be staying?" She handed him the completed stack.

"With us, Team 7." At the mild confusion that crossed Hinata's face, Naruto explained how Team 7 had been given a house 4 years back in order to keep an eye on Sasuke. And now it was to keep an eye on her, Hinata gathered from between the lines. She forced a smile and followed Naruto to her new prison.

The Leaf was practically handing Naruto to Hinata on a silver platter. They made him her guardian, and put them under the same roof as well. Everything was working out perfectly. It made Hinata's mission so much easier simply because Konoha didn't trust her, and took every precaution to keep her under a careful eye. But just because they upped security so as to prevent any particular missing-nin from entering physically, no one seemed to consider that shinobi of such high levels could easily learn how to project their chakra to get past these barriers. Like Itachi how projected his presence...Hinata blushed at the memory of Itachi's lips ghosting over her own.

She still couldn't believe that Uchiha Itachi had kissed her.

Hinata always knew that she admired the Uchiha greatly. He was the one that extended his hand and offered an opportunity to better herself. While existence with Sir had been peaceful, it wasn't a life the kunoichi could have lived happily for long. Where others had tossed her aside for someone better, Itachi had seen something in her worth keeping. He picked her up, dusted her wings, and gave her the chance to fly. She loved him for it.

But to _love_ him...

Hinata had never considered it seriously until now. The thought had crossed her mind before, for Itachi not an unattractive man to her. But her heart had always been filled with an image of sunbeams and sapphires, with no room for a darker man, and she laughed at herself for being so silly. The past month had stripped her of that notion. Her picture of the blond wasn't nearly so bright anymore, and her view of Itachi was no longer so overshadowed.

Sunlight glinting off of Naruto's headband interrupted her thoughts. Briefly, Hinata remembered one of the old analogies she had come up as a lovesick preteen: Naruto was the sun, and she the moon. It had comforted her that their physical characteristics were so fitting – there was a certain poetic justice to it. But then it had occurred to Hinata that, realistically, the Sun and Moon would never share the same sky together. Separated by an entire world, the Moon could only watch and wait to bask in the Sun's light from afar, never able to quite reach the Sun except in the rare occurrence of a solar eclipse.

"Welcome to your new home, Kaeru-san!" Naruto gave her a wide smile.

The thought didn't bother her as much as it had 5 years ago.

Hinata looked at the house and smiled as Sakura came out to welcome her.

"Thank you. You are too kind." Hinata bowed gracefully, the perfect image of a lady. Sakura led her into the house, even going so far as to give her a small tour. The house was a small three-bedroom package, but it was cozy. Perfect for three young adults to live in. A fourth, unfortunately, was just one person too many. Hinata decided not to mention on how tight space would be with two futons laid out in Sakura's room.

"Hyuuga-san, do you need anything to drink? Are you hungry?" Sakura flitted about the room like a restless butterfly, eager to make the Hyuuga feel more at home. Hinata gave her a grateful smile, touched that Sakura so genuinely wanted her be more comfortable, despite her less than flattering status.

"No, thank you, Sakura-san." The other kunoichi seemed disconcerted by Hinata's polite mannerisms. Hinata didn't blame her, considering how she had treated her when Sakura had simply wanted to thank her. Finally, Sakura simply nodded, not quite sure on how to respond to this newly demure S-class nin.

"And Sakura-san?"

"Hm?"

"I want to apologize for how I treated you the other day – I wasn't in the best set of minds." Hinata meet Sakura's green eyes steadily, willing her to see how sincere she was. And Hinata was sincere in her apology, but getting in Sakura's good graces also meant that Tsunade would receive more favorable reports on her behavior. Maybe eventually, Konoha'll decrease the number of watchful eyes on her.

"It's okay, Hyuuga-san," Sakura replied. "I understand."

Both of them knew she really didn't understand, but that was fine now because Sakura had made the gesture of forgiving Hinata. The two of them could pretend that they were just two strangers with no strings of hate between them.

"Sakura-chan, Kaeru-san! The old hag just called me so I'll heading over there for a bit! I'll be back by lunch!" Naruto's voice rang, interrupting the small talk of two, unconnected strangers.

"Naruto-baka, don't yell in the house!" Sakura yelled back. "And you better not get ramen for take-out again!"

"Got it, Sakura-chan! Bye!" The door slammed shut. Hinata giggled at how casual Sakura and Naruto were with each other. The other girl flushed when she remembered that a guest was still present.

"Ah, sorry, habit," she apologized. Hinata shook her head, indicating that there was nothing to be sorry for.

"You are very close to your comrades," she commented quietly. "That is a good thing." The pink-haired girl paused, and then looked away, unsure if she could ask such a personal question.

"Hyuuga-san...did you have a genin team before...?" Sakura trailed off, but Hinata knew what she meant.

"Yes, I did," Hinata replied. "I still cherish them very much." The faces of Team 8 appeared in her mind and she shook her head of her thoughts. She did not regret escaping the walls of Konoha and faking her death some years ago, even if it pained her teammates at the time. They've come to terms with her "death" for a good while now, and they never did figure out that she was Hyuuga Hinata, despite all the time she spent with them.

"Do you want --"

"No." Hinata shook her head firmly as her features drew into a frown. "My former self is dead to my team. It would hurt them too much to know me as I am now." Sakura studied her for a moment before speaking softly.

"Kaeru isn't your real name, is it, Hinata-san?" Hinata looked at Sakura sharply. Her true identity was S-level classified information. Other than the people present at her sealing and select members of the Hyuuga clan, no others were privy to such sensitive truth.

"I'm not Tsunade's apprentice for nothing," Sakura told her, without the slightest hint of arrogance. Hinata regarded her carefully, and then she sighed.

"True, you always were the smartest kunoichi our generation."

"I won't tell anyone." Hinata looked back at the other kunoichi and smiled. Even though it was classified information, she still appreciated the sentiment behind the gesture. Team 8 could go on to live a pretty dream for a little longer.

Sakura's bright eyes shifted to focus behind Hinata. She turned to see the younger Uchiha in the doorway.

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Sakura." he greeted with a terse nod. He studied Hinata briefly and then a smile curled his thin lips.

"Welcome, Kaeru-san." And then his smile was gone, just as abruptly as it came. But Hinata didn't miss the envious look that passed through Sakura's green eyes, and she wondered just how rare Sasuke's smiles really were.

"I'm taking you to get your tattoo and uniform. Be ready in half an hour," Sasuke told her.

"Wait! I'll go, too." Sakura scrambled to her feet. Hinata followed suit with more grace, keeping her features carefully blank of any of the irritation she felt. Her small chat with Sakura had gone to complete waste because of Sasuke's actions, if she'd read the situation right. Now she'd be lucky if Sakura was simply jealous. It would make things especially difficult for her mission if Sakura regarded her as a rival for Sasuke's affection.

"Che, why do you want to go?" Sasuke was asking Sakura with an annoyed expression on his face. "I'm taking Kaeru-san because I have business at the headquarters anyways."

"Um...I have to pick up groceries for dinner." Hinata wisely decided not to say anything on how Naruto had already agreed to pick up some take-out for dinner.

"Fine. Whatever." Sasuke stalked to his room and shut the door. Sakura stared after the Uchiha forlornly for a moment before picking herself back up and hiding the obvious hurt in her eyes.

"I'm going to make some tea," Sakura said with a forced smile. They were no longer strangers unconnected by darker emotions. "You should rest a little bit before we leave."

She exited before Hinata could answer. With a small sigh, Hinata turned to the small bundle of belongings still under her name. They had been thoughtful enough to return her kimono, though her scroll obi was nowhere to be found. Wise decision on their part, but Hinata had long committed every seal pattern on there by memory. After her first 6 scroll obis were destroyed on missions, Hinata had quickly learned how to make speedy replacements.

But the kimono was still in good condition – someone even patched up some of the more noticeable rips and got rid of most of the stains. Hinata caressed the dark silk. It felt cool beneath her skin, a bit like water slipping through her fingers. Someone even included an alternate obi. When Hinata slipped into the robe, she felt like a part of her was back in place.

Sakura had a full-length mirror in the room, and Hinata perused her reflection for the first time in several weeks. It only took one seal on her forehead to change everything about her appearance. Nothing had changed, yet everything was different from before. She couldn't quite decide if she could handle such a fact.

"Kaeru-san, it's time to go." Sakura's voice pulled Hinata from her thoughts. She hadn't realize she had been staring at her reflection for so long.

"Coming," she replied, pulling the kimono tighter around herself. She needed every defense she had against the next step of her ordeal.

They took her to the tattoo artist's shop first. The whir of the drill was distant to Hinata's ears, but the pain of ink being forced into her skin was all too similar to how she got her Caged-Bird Seal. It was yet another mark of Konoha on her body, claiming her permanently as the Leaf's. If Sakura or Sasuke noticed how close Hinata was to ripping the covers off of the arm holds, neither of them said anything as Sasuke led them to the lowest level of ANBU headquarters.

"Wait here." Sasuke unlocked an ordinary looking door and slipped inside. Hinata peeked inside to see rows upon rows of ANBU uniforms.

"We go through uniforms quickly," Sakura explained to Hinata. "An inevitable aspect of the job. But the mask – we keep that always. We're not supposed to have our masks off anytime we're on duty. Our mission to retrieve you was a special case, since you already knew our identities. No point in wearing our masks to hinder our sight." The Hyuuga wondered if Sakura forgot that Hinata was a veteran of the field, and was more than aware of the clothing difficulties that shinobi experience. No, the entire time, Sakura had been baiting Hinata, sending barb after barb under the guise of advising Hinata on the ins and outs of ANBUhood. Hinata only nodded.

"Thank you for informing me, Sakura-senpai." The sarcasm added on the honorific was subtle, but conveyed her meaning quite well. The pink-haired kunoichi smiled at her in a way that didn't reach her eyes.

"No problem, Kaeru-chan." The challenge was set. In the eyes of Konoha, Sakura was indeed Hinata's superior. And in the eyes of all bingo-books, Hinata was the better ninja. However, neither angle mattered, for Sakura was under the impression that they were fighting for Sasuke's love. At this point, Hinata was annoyed enough to vie for Sasuke's heart simply to spite Sakura. While this direction of progress would ruin all her credibility with Sakura, it would draw Naruto's interest.

Sasuke interrupted their glaring contest with a harsh glare of his own. He dropped a thick packet into Hinata's hands. She looked down at the porcelain mask on top of the uniform. Blank, feline eyes stared back her. It was a beautiful mask, but a strange feeling welled inside her that refused to be subdued. The feline, however graceful, would always be earthbound. Hinata could handle being caged, but the thought of being wingless made something inside shriek in protest.

"We don't pick our masks, Kaeru-chan," Sakura told her softly, as if she were reciting memorized codes. Hinata's disapproval of her assigned mask must have leaked onto her face. "True ANBU members take their assigned masks and bring honor to the village."

Hinata grimaced openly, but said nothing on the matter. This was only a mission after all, and her actions hold no relevancy to her own identity. She brought package close to her chest, feeling like she was condemning herself to yet another set of chains. The mask's features seemed almost accusing.

"What animal do you want?" Sasuke abruptly asked her. Hinata paused, surprised, before her eyes flickered skyward.

"The eagle."

"Mmm." The ANBU captain withdrew a mask from his vest and extended to Hinata. Sakura stared, a mixture of hurt and envy on her face.

"Sasuke, are you sure?" she whispered, voice deceivingly calm. "Do you really want to give her _your_ mask?"

The Uchiha ignored his teammate and handed Hinata the eagle mask. He then took the cat mask and tucked into his vest when the other one had been.

"The eagle doesn't fit me anymore," he said with a tilt of his head. Hinata inclined her head in. She understood what Sasuke was trying to say.

"Consider us even."

In his own way, he was thanking her for helping him terminate Orochimaru. Too bad none of them knew of the circumstances surrounding the curse seal.

He smiled slightly and turn to leave.

Hinata followed Sasuke out the door, trying not to look at the shattered look on Sakura's face.

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	12. SCROLL 12: Acclimation

Disclaimer: The only Naruto I own is currently sitting in the fridge in anticipation for my next ramen fix.

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Come Full Circle

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By Airyo

ARC II

Scroll 12

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Sakura had a shift at the hospital that night, so Hinata was alone in their room. The Hyuuga sat by the window, watching as the waning sunset washed the room in warm colors. She desperately ignored the bundle of her ANBU uniform by her side, but when the room had settled into a semi-darkness, Hinata couldn't help but carefully open the package and draw out the parts of her uniform – the vest, the pants, the guards...she tried not to relish the feel of the slick, stretchy fabric. Each movement of her arm sent a lingering twinge through her new ANBU tattoo.

She was ANBU.

The realization hit her like one of Sakura's punches.

Five years ago, Hinata hadn't even dared to dream of ANBU. Now, she had almost been too qualified. The irony of it all didn't escape Hinata. Her tattoo pulsed encouragingly. Hinata gathered her courage. She donned the uniform, and facing the full-length mirror, slowly placed the eagle mask on her face.

She was disappointed in what she saw. The reflection didn't even look different, now that her seal was concealed. It was simply Hinata, playing dress up in someone else's clothes. An impostor...

Biting back the curse word at the tip of her tongue, she perused her image, turning this way and that way. Then Hinata pulled her long hair into a high ponytail. She shifted the mask downwards, so only the glint of her pale eyes peeked through the eye-holes, unhindered by the soft line of her thick lashes. The dark lines along the porcelain mask stood out in sharp contrast – the eagle almost seemed to be laughing.

Better.

This girl in the mirror could be a stranger. A strange, Konoha ANBU was something she could handle. Hinata offered that girl a smile, hidden behind the mask.

"ANBU suits you."

Hinata whipped around.

"Itachi?" His projection stood by the window and the dark edges of his form blended into the night sky behind. Crimson eyes blinked once. When he opened his eyes again, they were black.

"Hinata." She smiled brilliantly at him, even as she flushed from the memory of their last meeting.

"My mission is going smoothly. My seal actually ties me to Naruto, and now I'll be operating in ANBU with Team 7." Itachi nodded.

"I know." Hinata looked away, chastened. Of course Itachi would know. If he didn't, he would have asked.

"When will you receive a mission outside of Konoha?"

"I don't know." Itachi left the window side and approached her slowly.

"Tell me when you do." Hinata looked at him strangely. Itachi would probably know of her mission even before she was informed of it. The darkness only made him more unreadable, so Hinata acquiesced, for Itachi always had his reasons.

"I will."

"Good."

Then Itachi watched her, studied her, and Hinata didn't know what to say. As if she could say anything at all. Her mouth had gone dry at how he perused her. Slowly, Hinata raised the mask so her face was bare. He made no movement, but simply looked her. The kunoichi hesitantly took a step towards him. One step, two steps…she could reach out and touch him now…three steps…

"Kaeru-san!" Naruto bounced in with a loud yell. "Sakura-chan just got back. We're going out to dinner – Kakashi-sensei's treat!"

"Okay, just let me change into something more suitable," Hinata agreed. Naruto gave her a wide grin and exited the room. Hinata looked back towards the window, but Itachi had already disappeared. More disappointed that she had expected herself to be, Hinata slipped back into her kimono and headed out to dinner with her new team.

Only Naruto was impressed by the fact that Kakashi decided to treat them to Ichiraku, which was probably the only cheap restaurant the Copy-Nin could have gotten away with using it as a treat for his team. After everyone had finished eating, Sasuke set his chopsticks down with a decisive click and pinned Kakashi with a frown.

"Do we finally have a new mission?" he asked. Kakashi eye-smiled.

"Actually yes, in about a week." Hinata recognized the slight buzz of chakra characteristic to a genjutsu to keep the conversation private. Hiding in plain sight. She had figured as much when Naruto announced the team dinner. The Copy-Nin continued.

"This one's a bit delicate since it requires some infiltration." He handed Sasuke a thin folder of further details. As the ANBU captain scanned over the information, Kakashi mentioned the one problem with the current situation.

"Unfortunately, there's only room for 4 people. No more." The fact that five people sat at the stand was not lost on anyone. Hinata discreetly activated her Byakugan and skimmed over the text in Sasuke's hands. Before she could finish reading, Sasuke made his decision and snapped the file shut.

"Sakura stays."

He ignored Sakura's protests as he stood. The seat scraped across the floor with a loud grating sound.

"Team training tomorrow, 8 am. Kakashi, don't be late." The Copy-Nin grinned sheepishly and nodded a promise that he probably wouldn't keep.

"Have a good evening, Kaeru-san." He gave everyone else a curt nod and left. Hinata looked after him curiously. Now that she thought about it, Sasuke's behavior struck her as exceedingly strange, even if he harbored feelings for her. That quick glance at the profile that Sasuke held had told her more than enough.

…_assassination of business man…shady dealings…may have connections with Akatsuki…fond of postitutes…especial weakness for green-eyed ones…_

It made no sense that Sasuke would choose to leave behind Sakura instead of Kakashi. Speaking of the Copy-Nin…no wonder that he had willingly treated Team 7 – he wanted them in a good enough mood to exclude him from this mission. His ruse didn't work, and the disappointed droop to his shock of silver hair only confirmed Hinata's suspicions.

"Ah…this is gooooood ramen! Another bowl please – since Kakashi-sensei's paying anyways!" Naruto exclaimed loudly in a rather blatant attempt at the dispersing the awkward silence Sasuke had left behind him. Sakura only murmured an absent agreement, her shuttered eyes clearly focused elsewhere. The Kyuubi-vessel looked at her with concern before digging into his fresh bowl with exaggerated vigor.

"Naruto…don't eat me into debt…" Kakashi muttered with a growl, going along with the blonde's ruse to ease the situation. Sakura laughed woodenly at his distress. Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly. The three of them laughed again.

This stilted play they put on, it had been rehearsed too many times to be convincing anymore. Hinata marveled that Sakura could still love someone who rejected her openly for countless times...for years, in fact. The thought of Sakura's blind devotion irritated something inside her and she stood suddenly. Their eyes shifted to her.

"It's been a long day for me." And it had. Hinata had been wrapped up in a whirlwind of more paperwork today, and had only managed to escape everyone's watchful eyes for a brief moment in the room she and Sakura shared. But that was just an excuse.

"I will retire early today. Have a good evening, Kakashi-san, Naruto-san, Sakura-san." She tried to meet Sakura's gaze, but the girl refused to look up. Hinata gave them a pleasant smile and departed.

Leaving the brightly lit Ichiraku made it a little easier to breath. She took as long as she dared to walk back to her new home. No one was home, fortunately. Hinata quietly unlocked the door and slipped inside. She fully intended to be fast asleep by the time Sakura returned.

Needless to say, team practices were quite awkward after Sasuke's outright refusal of Sakura's placement on the team for the mission that night. Sakura was part of Team 7, however, so she still attended the daily team meetings. In an effort to ready his team before the upcoming mission, Sasuke focused primarily on exercises that would help the members acquaint themselves with each others' combat styles. That often left Sakura sitting on the sidelines, watching with a pained expression that Hinata couldn't bear to look at. Every night, Hinata rushed to get to bed well before she had to encounter Sakura. It was a whirlwind of a week, both physically and mentally. Hinata could only visit with Itachi for brief minutes, and she didn't even have time to visit the Hyuuga estates to assuage the worry that gnawed at her.

The mission itself was anticlimactic, considering the week leading up to it. Team 7 went in, completed the mission, and left, all of which proceeded so smoothly Hinata wondered if this was yet another badly rehearsed play. She hadn't even needed the new scroll that she had painstaking drawn out the night before.

But that wasn't what bothered her the most.

Sasuke's behavior, if possible, was even more inconsistent with he supposedly felt for "Kaeru-san". During team meetings, the way he favored Hinata was almost too obvious, considering his personality. In fact, he was the perfect gentleman. With every little scrap, every little grimace, Sasuke would halt the entire team practice to ensure that Hinata was alright.

"You can rest for a little, Kaeru-san. It's understandable since you've just recovered from a rather difficult time," he assured her after Hinata had taken a rather hard blow to the gut. And she still felt sluggish at the time, for the month since her capture hadn't been the best of times for her. But that was no excuse to him to coddle her like a fragile thing spun of glass. And it was especially no excuse for him to act so damn sincere about it.

However, even that stifling over-concern, Hinata could handle. What she couldn't forgive was the fact that Sasuke acted like he operated with some kind of on-off switch. This dichotomy became even more apparent over the next few weeks, especially during missions. Sometimes, Hinata was the center of world and the kitchen sink – Sasuke would almost endanger the entire mission simply for Hinata's comfort. Then sometimes, she wasn't even worthy of the slime gathering in the drain. One time, he refused to rescue Hinata even when both Naruto and Sakura insisted that they return to do so. Hinata had to fight her way out of a nearly impossible situation single-handedly, and she ended up at the hospital for full week afterwards. It was enough to drive Hinata crazy, and she wasn't even madly in love with the guy. She wondered if Sakura got the better end of deal in this whole thing. At least he was consistent with her.

She relayed none of her frustrations to Itachi during their meetings, although it was quite clear to him that something was bothering her. He had gotten a schedule of Sakura's shifts and always appeared just as the pink-haired medic left the exited the door. Tonight was no different. As if on cue, the sound of Sakura shutting the front door summoned the dark figure of Itachi.

"Itachi," Hinata greeted. He inclined his head in his usual response.

"Hinata."

"We have a new mission in two days. A minor assassination." Hinata dutifully reported the details of her upcoming mission to Itachi, as she had for every mission taken under ANBU thus far. She was surprised at how quickly she had settled into the ANBU routine. Hinata could almost mistake herself for someone who had been in ANBU for several years, if it weren't for the unfading feeling that she was still intruding on Team 7. That, and the distinct lack of loyalty for Konoha on her part. Any warm thoughts for Konoha had long been wiped away with her sealing almost three months ago.

Itachi gave no response after Hinata finished her summary, although he had adopted the posture of thought.

"I am currently bound to the Grass country," he admitted. "Pein-sama needs Kisame and I to aid in the capture of another Jinchuuriki. Make sure to inform me when you have a mission that takes you to the Grass – I may visit you." His last sentence made Hinata's heart jump. Her joy leaked through her control and her eyes shined for it.

"I would…like that very much, Itachi."

"Mm."

Although his hologram was featureless save for the eyes, Hinata was sure Itachi was smiling as well, ever so slightly. That knowledge buoyed her through her next mission.

"You seem to be in a good mood," the ANBU with the frog mask commented as he plunged a Rasengan into the gut of an enemy shinobi. Hinata placed a seal on another before kicking him to a larger group of his comrades. A few quick hand seals set the bomb seal off, effectively eliminating that entire group.

"A very good mood," the Frog continued with a wince. Hinata shrugged as she sized up the next wave of enemy nin. She wasn't particularly sadistic and simply aimed to get the task completed in the most efficient way possible. But it seemed that Konoha didn't share the same level of tolerance regarding gore, so the new Eagle ANBU had quickly gained a very bloodthirsty reputation. Unfortunately, until last week, Sasuke hadn't bothered to report the fact that he had switched masks with Hinata. The Hokage hadn't been too pleased with the paperwork that the situation landed her.

"I do what I need to do," she finally replied. The crackle of a Chidori behind her interrupted the short conversation. A Cat ANBU joined them briefly.

"Please get back to fighting, Eagle-san, Frog-dobe. Surely you can finish this later." Then the Cat left them to attack another group of opponents. This particular daimyo seemed to believe in quantity over quality, judging by the sheer number of Chuunin he had hired to protect him. The Frog ANBU shook his head.

"It always creeps me out when Cat-teme is so polite to you." Hinata shrugged again and dived back in the mess to aid the Panther ANBU and the Canine ANBU. Not that either of them needed any. The Panther created a wide fissure in perfect timing with the Canine, who had been herding the enemy towards her. The earth's gaping maw swallowed the group in one bite. The Frog's clones and Hinata's seals took care of the remaining Chuunin.

After that, the few Jounin that were hired was merely challenging. Yet another mission, completed smoothly.

"Oy, teme. You might want to start requesting harder missions for us!" the Frog was bragging as they stopped by the Konoha hospital for a customary post-mission checkup. The Cat snorted, but neglected to reply. Instead, he addressed Hinata.

"The missions do seem easier, don't they, Eagle-san?" The Panther watched with a certain coldness to her stance and Hinata only nodded slightly in response before trying to end the conversation by turning away from him. The Cat ANBU pretended not to notice the slight movement.

"The actual ranking of our latest missions actually haven't changed at all, so it must be the addition of our Eagle-san who's made the team that much bet—"

"PANTHER-SAN!!!"

A frantic medic nin dashed down the hallway, haphazardly dodging its occupants. Hinata welcomed the distraction that halted Sasuke's words and Sakura's chilly perusal. She watched as the Panther listened to medic's hasty report. Since she was closest one to the Panther, some of the words reached Hinata's sharp ears.

"…critical condition…poison…may not make it…Hyuuga...heir…"

_Hanabi. _

Hinata's world froze. For some reason, a knot curled uncomfortably in her stomach.

…_no…_

The Panther nodded curtly, professionalism taking over her demeanor.

"I'll meet you guys later. We have an emergency," she told the rest of Team 7 before departing swiftly through the double doors of the emergency wing. Hinata made to follow, but a hand at her elbow stopped her. The Frog shook his head slightly.

"Panther-chan knows what she's doing." He had also heard enough to realize it was Hyuuga Hanabi in the emergency room. Hinata glared at him.

"I do, too," she told with him with a snarl. She ripped her arm out of his grasp and dashed after the medics. The Frog made no move to stop her.

Hinata burst through the double doors only to find an empty hallway, filled only with fluorescent lights that cast a sterile glare to the floor. Panic threatened to set in with the adrenaline. Forcing her breaths to stillness, Hinata closed her eyes and spread out her chakra in search of the operating room.

There!

The world snapped back into focus. Hinata raced down the maze of hallways, guided only by the thinnest thread of Sakura's chakra. She reached the final corner just as Sakura entered the room. Hinata ran up to the door, only to be halted by one of the nurses.

"You can't be here, ANBU-san." Hinata shoved her aside and barged through the door to reach a scene that caused the knot in her stomach to twist further.

The room was covered with the dark lines of seals, with numerous medic nin seated throughout to guide the chakra flow. Tsunade sat to side, her brow covered with the sheen of effort. It seemed that all the medic nin of the hospital had gathered in this small room, judging by the chaos of white uniforms before Hinata's eyes. But she could only stare at the pitiful figure in the middle of this mess.

Hanabi lay in the center of the seals, skin a pasty gray despite the smears of pink from residual blood. The enormous hole at the side of her stomach still leaked blood, even though it was clear that the Hyuuga had little left to spare.

"We can't stop the bleeding, Hokage-sama!"

"The poison's slowing the healing too much – we don't have the time, Hokage-sama!"

"Hokage-sama!"

"Hokage-sama!"

The poison was keeping them from healing her before she bled to death. Hinata stepped forward to peruse the seals. She had to do something. Anything.

"You can't be here." Sakura stood behind Hinata, having changed into her medic uniform.

"You can't stop me," Hinata snapped back. An ugly expression crossed the medic nin's face and she raised her hands as if to physical throw Hinata out of the room. The disturbance drew the Godaime's attention.

"Eagle-san?" she asked wearily. "You shouldn't be here." Hinata hardly spared her a glance as her eyes skimmed over the long lines of seals on the ground. Even as hands pulled at her arms, she strained to read over the last few seals.

"You have to le—"

"You need to change those seals." Hinata's quiet statement hung in silence so heavy she thought that she would be crushed. She shrugged off the shocked hands and approached the seal set.

"Here, if you shift the third quadrant over to the second and substitute that part with another set of transformation seals, you can get rid of the poison and stop the bleeding in one step." She looked back at the frown on the Godaime's face. The Hokage was still rather suspicious of Hinata at the moment because Tsunade had only found out about the mask-swapping just recently. The large amount of paperwork required to correct several mission reports as well as Hinata and Sasuke's personal files didn't help Tsunade's opinion of Hinata.

"This standard seal set isn't working fast enough, not with the poison in her. You have to alter the seals, and…I realize that you're more that capable of doing that with some time. But that's exactly what you don't have." Hinata paused, glancing back the seals.

"Give me 15 minutes. I can rewrite it. I'm a seals expert and I've dealt a lot with poison before." The suspicious frown did not leave Tsunade's face. However, Sakura was studying her with an intensity that could only indicate consideration.

"…please…" Hinata finally gritted out. The pink-haired medic made her decision, although she seemed less than pleased with herself.

"Shishou, I think you should give Eagle-san a chance." Tsunade exhaled, and Hinata ignored that way the Hokage's eyes lingered on where her seal was. Both of them were more than aware that the Godaime could very easily subdue Hinata with a single hand seal.

"Fine. Fifteen minutes, no more." Everyone exploded into action with these words. Hanabi was quickly moved to the side where Sakura concentrated on drawing out as much as poison she could. Several other medics ensured that Hanabi didn't bleed to death until then. A few cleaned Hanabi of the ink still on her skin. Still more cleaned the area of the ground that Hanabi had laid in.

Under the Hokage's orders, Shizune provided Hinata fresh ink mixed with some of Hanabi's blood. Tsunade and Shizune watched carefully as the ANBU sniffed the mixture carefully. The acrid smell of ink and metallic scent of blood filled her nose. Different seal patterns flashed through Hinata's mind even as she picked up the thick brush and began to add to the seals already on the ground. There were endless combinations she could create…but what was the best one?

The one that would save her little sister's life?

Neji's accusing words floated through her mind.

"_Then what about your sister?_"

Hinata bit her lip, furiously adding seals as she fused them with her chakra. Often, she paused to scrub away a bad seal before replacing it with one of her own. The 15-minutes allowance passed both too quickly and too slowly.

"Eagle-san, it's time."

That strange sense of time made Hinata look up with surprise, not quite sure to classify the end of her time as "already" or "finally". In the end, she just drew out one last seal before setting her brush down. Lightheaded from the loss of chakra, Hinata gingerly moved to the side the room.

"Just put in her in the center and link the usual seal to her body." The medics rushed to follow her instructions. Hinata watched as they moved Hanabi back and reconnected her to the large seal set on the ground. There were 6 spots for medics to channel their chakra. The Hokage, Shizune, Sakura and three others took their seats and began pouring their energy in Hinata's seals.

Several, long minutes passed without result. Hinata's heart sank, and she wondered if she had been too late. Too late to improve, too late to return, too late to save her little sister from death, from the burden of being Heir…then Hanabi coughed out a glob of sickly purple mucus. Right before their very eyes, the wound in her abdomen began to close up rapidly. Within a minute, there was nothing left of the wound but star-shaped scar. Hanabi's breathing had evened out to the deep breaths of someone simply resting and not on the verge of death.

Cheers broke out in the room. Hinata leaned against the wall as she slid to the ground and a long sigh of relief escaped her lips.

"Good job." A hand appeared in her field of vision. Hinata looked up to see Tsunade smiling down at her. She took the offered hand and let herself be hauled up.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Hinata stumbled from getting up so quickly and the Hokage steadied her with a hand around her shoulders.

"Watch it there. You've drained yourself of what little energy you had left after that mission. Both you and Sakura need to rest up." Tsunade gestured behind here, where Shizune had wrapped one of Sakura's arms around her shoulder to help her walk. Sakura sensed Hinata's eyes and turned to meet her gaze. The pink-haired girl smiled reluctantly, and then turned away with Shizune before Hinata could return her minute smile.

Hinata grinned anyways. Her respect for Sakura only rose further. Despite her obvious love for Sasuke, she could put aside such a large part of her own life for a patient. Hinata admired that. It seemed that Sakura and her would get along just fine, even with Sasuke's bipolar attitude towards her.

Hinata gasped when the revelation hit her.

"What's wrong?" Tsunade paused and looked at her strangely. Hinata shook her head.

"It's nothing."

And it was exactly that. Nothing. There was nothing to worry about. Hinata couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed something so obvious until now. Sasuke was "nice" to Hinata only when Sakura was present to witness it. Otherwise, he treated her as any other teammate. Everything made sense now.

Hinata wanted to laugh out loud in relief. The burden of this impending team confrontation had been lifted from her shoulders. If this small misunderstanding could be resolved, then her mission could proceed so much more smoothly. With Hanabi's life out of danger, her situation didn't so horrifying at the moment.

"Hokage-sama! Hyuuga-sama wishes to speak with Eagle-san."

She had spoken too soon.

Hinata was never more grateful for her mask, for nothing else could have hidden the way her smile fell from her face at the sight of Hyuuga Hiashi standing before them.

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AN: As for Sakura's ANBU animal being a panther…sorry, I couldn't resist. And by the way, Happy New Year's everyone!


	13. SCROLL 13: Confrontation

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine.

Come Full Circle

Scroll 13

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"E-excuse m-m-me?" Hinata stuttered out. This felt wrong. She hasn't stuttered for almost 4 years, and yet just a few words from Hiashi could turn her into a gibbering mess. The strange expression on his face disappeared and instead, a look of annoyance took its place.

"I said 'The Hyuuga are in your debt', Eagle-san," the Hyuuga head repeated slowly, as he considered retracting his gratitude. Hinata shook her head and rubbed her temples gently.

"Oh, I'm…sorry, I'm just a little tired," she told him mechanically. "And Hyuuga-sama, I was glad I could be of aid, but you give me too much credit. There were many praiseworthy medics in that room who helped save your daughter." Her words came automatically, as a response for any sort of praise. Hinata's mind was too blank to generate anything otherwise. The hard lines of the elder Hyuuga's face softened.

"Nonetheless, I was told it was you that made the difference between life and death for my daughter. To have healed such wound immediately after returning from an S-class mission. Eagle-san, you are indeed a commendable shinobi."

"Thank you, you are too kind." The lump lodged in her throat threatened to choke her. As if sensing the downward spiral of Hinata's emotions, Tsunade began pulling Hinata away from the Hyuuga head.

"Hyuuga-san, I realize the you are grateful to our ANBU operative, but she is quite exhausted. I'd be more than happy to be arrange another appointment." Hiashi let them pass him easily.

"I look forward to it. Hokage-sama, Eagle-san." He nodded his farewell and headed in through the doors to where his other daughter was roomed. A long sigh escaped Hinata after he exited. Tsunade chuckled.

"No need to be so uptight, Eagle. It's Konoha policy that he cannot know your identity. Your masks are issued for a reason," the Godaime assured her as the Frog and the Cat rushed over to them.

"Hi-I mean-Eagle-chan! Sakura-chan! What happened? Oy, old hag, what did you do to them?!" Frog bellowed. The Cat grabbed Hinata's free hand and eased her weight from the Godaime's shoulders to his own. She lacked the energy to protest, but it was quite obvious to her what he was doing right before Sakura's eyes.

"Naruto, it's fine. It was just a difficult case," Sakura muttered after a long silence as the group witnessed the Cat's "affection" for Hinata.

"Let's go home. I'm tired." Her shoulders drooped with the heaviness of heartbreak and despair, two emotions so closely intertwined they were often mistaken for the other. The duality of it only seemed to double Sakura's load. Almost guiltily, Hinata tried to withdraw her arm from the Cat's grasp. He tightened his hold warningly, and moved past the pink-haired medic.

"You're right, we should get home. Kaeru-san needs rest." The fact that he neglected to mention Sakura was rang like the haunting song of a dying bird.

So Sasuke continued to reject Sakura's persistent affections. Though Sakura and Hinata had come a sort of agreement between them, the atmosphere in Team 7's house was cold as ever. Even Naruto's sunny personality paled against the suffocating cloud that gathered inside. Quickly, it became impossible to breath whenever Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata were in the same room. Hinata took to long walks through Konoha, simply to avoid asphyxiation. Everyone breathed a sign of relief when Tsunade's order for the next mission was delivered.

This time, the mission remained within the Fire Country. The traceless assassination of businessman and the retrieval of a deed, just so the 3rd son could inherit a multi-million dollar business. Straightforward, and with none of the loose ends of a political murder. And it had turned out for the best when Kakashi was out on a solo mission at the time, for without a foreign presence, Hinata found that it was all too easy to slip into the cold robes of a heartless killer. Sakura was simply the Panther. Sasuke the Cat. Naruto the Frog. And Hinata, the stranger with the Eagle's mask. Once the mask was on, all that made each of them unique was compressed into a box left deep inside, locked until the day it was okay to be human. Compartmentalizing so ruthlessly was a dark skill that every ninja learned very soon after their first kill.

That mission was perhaps Team 7's most efficiently executed operation.

In a single day, Team 7 completed an assignment that should have taken at least three days. Had the Cat not halted the team for a well-deserved break, they could have easily collapsed within Konoha's gates by midnight.

The campfire burned a cold, pale yellow, searing the four seated around it with its color. Gaunt shadows starved of warmth surrounded them among the trees, darting from branch to branch like frightened children. Save the intermittent crackle of fire, the air was swollen of silence, cradled by lips lacking the courage to speak. But then Hinata drew courage from necessity, for the fraying threads of Team 7 stared them in the face and she could either defuse the growing discomfort, or she could let it evolve into an incurable disease that could even poison her own hardened heart.

"Sasuke," she said softly. "We need to talk." Before the Cat could protest, she grasped his arm and dragged him in the dark cover of the forest. The Panther bowed her head, and her body glowed of a sorrow that only the strongest man could refrain from soothing. When Hinata could no longer catch the hard light of the fire, she turned and removed her mask.

"Why do you keep playing this game?" she asked bluntly.

"It's against the oath to remove your mask on duty," he bit back.

"Take off your mask, Sasuke. You're acting like a child." The snapping sound of her voice seemed to pierce him, and slowly, Sasuke reached up and removed his mask. "Well?" his mocking expression seemed to say.

"You know who I am, don't you?" Sasuke gave her a disdainful look.

"Hyuuga Hinata, former heir of Hyuuga and former member of Akatsuki. Often known as the Chitsuki-hime. Defected at age 14, five years ago. Sighted once at Sound, at age 15, when aiding me in defeating Orochimaru. Otherwise, her sightings were through rumors via Jiraiya's spy network. Currently on ANBU probation under Team 7, and sealed to Uzumaki Naruto. Other accomplishments include the near death of Sabaku no Gaara, Kazekage, and the defeats of many of Konoha's ANBU. Abilities include unusually proficient sealing jutsu."

"And?" Hinata prompted. The Uchiha gave her a dark frown, although confusion marred his pale brow. Steeling herself, Hinata stepped forward and whispered it into Sasuke's ear.

"Have you ever wondered why your curse seal disappeared that day, and your mind cleared of the fog that had been slowly poisoning your very soul? You owe me more than you can ever imagine." He stilled like a statue, frozen in time.

"It was I who took it."

"Liar, it's still here," he growled. Pulling roughly at the neck of his uniform, Sasuke revealed the pale skin connected his shoulder and his neck. In the moonlight that filtered through the branches, Hinata could make out the faint lines of the commas clustered in a circle.

"Yes, the scar of it. But you don't feel that presence lurking in the back of your mind anymore, do you?" His sullen silence gave her all the answers she needed. In one deft move, Hinata lifted the bottom hem of her top to expose a toned belly and the lines of her breast bindings. There, splayed across her ribs just under the swell of her left breast, an exact copy of Sasuke's curse seal stood out in dark contrast.

"No…" the boy whispered. Hinata forced his hand to cup the curve of her ribs and pumped chakra through the seal. The sick purple color of Orochimaru's chakra pulsed around his hand, curling around his fingers as if attempting to recapture it. Sasuke tore his hand away, clenched fists trembling at his sides. He had felt the foul familiarity of the chakra.

"What is the meaning of this?" he hissed. Desperate, defensive energy crackled around his silhouette, and he struggled to restrain himself from attacking Hinata.

"I took it," the former Hyuuga princess replied brutally. "Your cursed seal, I took your burden and made it mine." This only served to anger the young Uchiha even more.

"I didn't need your help, Hyuuga. I don't need you to do some fancy dilution trick and think yourself a martyr for it. I could handle the curse se—"

"With my superior chakra control and sealing ability, I have a easier time controlling it. But it's just as potent as before," she interrupted with a hard glare that silenced the other. "Don't think I did it for you. I did to preserve something that was very important to me."

Sasuke immediately caught on her use of past tense.

"Was?"

"Was. That is the difference between Sakura and I. I have to keep changing to survive. But Sakura," –here, the hard line at the corner of Hinata's mouth softened regretfully – "Sakura is fortunate enough that she doesn't have to change eternally, because there are people willing to protect her. So willing to protect her, that he would sacrifice the few warm emotions he can have."

"Enough of your babble," he snarled, suddenly belligerent to hide his wariness. He turned to leave, only to be caught by Hinata's hand, alight with a seal.

"I don't think you understand," she pressed on. "The moment I realized Naruto had betrayed me, my love for him withered away. Yet Sakura continues to love you so wholehearted even though you betray her everyday."

Her voice lowered to a whisper, as she watched Sasuke's lips thin to icy lines. But he had stopped struggling.

"It makes you uncomfortable, doesn't it? After years of forcing away all hope in order to lessen the hurt, she goes right ahead and smashes it all away. Almost hurts, doesn't it? You can't understand why she would love a worthless thing like you, not when you went through so much trouble to make it clear to her that she can't love you." The image of Itachi, for some strange reason, fluttered through her mind like a persistent butterfly, fighting against the tossing winds. Shaking her head of such thoughts, Hinata continued, wishing that Sasuke would see what she had discovered.

"Please stop protecting her from yourself. You're killing her in the process. Treating someone who loves you so poorly is cruel. So is stringing someone who loves you along when you don't love them. But the cruelest thing you can do to her is to pretend your apathy despite that you care for her."

"I don't love her."

"I never said you loved her." A suppressed sort of hysteria rose in Hinata's voice like the last fluttering song of a caged nightingale. She had to make him understand. Something inside shrieked to the surface and tears threatened to well out of her eyes. If Sasuke, who was so similar to her, couldn't understand this, she would be alone in her beliefs. That thought scared her more than death itself.

"The greatest cruelty you're capable of is towards the ones you care for," she hissed out as she let go of his arm. "Think about it. Are you really so willing to throw it all away for _comfort_? I thought you were the type to push yourself, to break barriers. This is your second chance."

Hinata ignored how true her words even rang for her own situation, even though the image of Itachi refused to leave her mind. Instead, she pushed out his face with one of Sakura's. Over the past months, she had learned to respect Sakura's brand of strength. The pink-haired kunoichi had, in Hinata's eyes, taken the more difficult path in becoming a healer. Destruction was so easy. Sasuke, Naruto, Itachi, and even herself could attest to that. But to carefully piece a broken body together so it resembled the new…_that_ was hard. Out of so much chaos, Sakura was the only one of their generation who rose to challenge it and bring it all to order.

A sudden surge of loathing swelled in Hinata's chest, although she couldn't quite tell if the feeling was for Sasuke, for Sakura, or for herself.

"But I guess you're just a coward under all those fancy jutsus if you can't even accept a gift like that."

"Are you done yet?" he asked with a slight snarl. But he didn't attack her. When Hinata continued to remain silent, the Uchiha made a noise of disdain and left.

"Don't waste this chance…" Hinata called out. She wasn't sure if she was calling out to Sasuke, or to herself.

She watched his back slowly disappear into the dark embrace of the forest, and listened as his soft footsteps faded away. Left alone again. He didn't understand how precious Sakura's love for him was. Hinata had once prided herself in her steady love for Naruto, yet at the first sign of betrayal, she found that her heart could no longer support the pedestal she had placed him on. Some seven years of quiet, careful love burnt away in one of moment realization when she was sealed.

The forlorn cry of a bird echoed through the dark branches.

"Why do you keep playing this game? You're hiding like a child."

Itachi's calm voice brushed by her ear from behind. Hinata's heart froze as she realized that he was repeating the words she had spoken just a few minutes before.

He had heard everything. She could feel the anger emanating from his body. And he was so, so angry.

"You know who I am, don't you, Hyuuga Hinata?" She felt him press his lips harshly to her shoulder like a searing brand. Her skin crawled with fire at the sensation.

"I am Uchiha Itachi, former ANBU captain and current member of the Akatsuki," he answered himself when Hinata didn't reply.

"I have always wondered why your aura was mixed with Orochimaru's when you first returned from your mission. But then it disappeared and I thought it just a lingering effect of your fight. I observed you carefully, and you showed no signs of corruption. How silly of me to assumed so highly of your abilities then."

"I…I had to," she tried to reason. His iron grip on her upper arms kept her from turning to face him.

"No, you didn't." His voice was hard, and it rubbed her heart raw in the truth of it. She lowered her head in aquiesce.

He was right. She didn't have to, but she had done it anyways, out of what was now revealed to be a twisted hero-worship of an image that didn't even exist. That was what happened when you love a person from the distance – he goes and be nothing like your original impression of him. Bastard.

"Good. As long as you know." Itachi's hand gripped her chin and twisted her neck around painfully so she faced him.

He kissed her. Harshly. Possessively.

Her lips bled from her first kiss.

"Get rid of the seal," he hissed into her lips as he ceased his utter possession of her mouth. "I do not tolerate someone else's mark on you for long."

And then he was gone. A phantom with a kiss so real that Hinata's lips still burned. Her knees buckled under her and Hinata fell to the ground, shaking.

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A.N. Sorry to the 100th power for both the late update and the crappy quality of this chapter (I literally threw this thing together in like an hour...TT)! My reason (not excuse!) is called college. I was unfortunate enough to end up with an exam every week until spring break, so I was cramming instead of writing. Now that it's spring break however…..wink wink

Oh yeah, please please please get back to me on how the story is progressing (just not on the rate of updates though . ). Is Hinata realistic? Is Itachi and Hinata's relationship progressing realistically? Am I portraying Team 7 in an okay manner? Long critical reviews are much appreciated.


	14. SCROLL 14: Invitation

Come Full Circle

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Come Full Circle

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By Airyo

AN: I finally got around to looking up the Japanese equivalents of the ANBU names. "Washi" sounds better than "eagle" so that will be what i will use from time to time. I also assume that no one save one's teammates and the Hokage is privy to an ANBU's identity, not even clan heads.

ARC II

Scroll 14: Invitation

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After what felt like some hours later, the Frog ANBU came looking for Hinata and found her still kneeling on the ground. Silently, he repositioned the Eagle's mask so it covered her unreadable expression and pulled her to her feet.

"Eagle-chan?" he whispered gently. "We're leaving. Cat-teme wants to make it back home by dawn." Hinata sighed and nodded. She withdrew her hands from his and headed back towards the campsite.

"Are you alright?"

Hinata shook her head and walked a little faster, so the blond wouldn't be walking right beside her.

She didn't know what to think, given her current situation. All Hinata could do was file Itachi's actions back into her mind like just another fact, no more meaningful than today's weather or the color of Naruto's eyes. Itachi had kissed her, as himself and not by proxy of some shadow projection.

Kissed her.

Too bad the act itself had been more a means to mark her as his property than any show of romantic inclination. Remotely, Hinata remembered that she should be hurting that he viewed her as something to be owned, but she couldn't conjure more than a faint annoyance. After all, any relationship rested on the possessives that each person regarded the other with; my father, my sister, my teammates, my teacher, my crush…

Hinata spared a sharp glance to the blond at her side.

"Stop being so nice to me, Frog," she told him flatly. He jogged to catch up to her, his blue eyes confused.

"What are you talking about, Eagle-chan?" Hinata brushed by him roughly and jogged ahead, even though she knew quite well that he could match her pace. The Frog followed her, still waiting for an answer.

"Entire schools of philosophies collapse because of you. I would like to refrain from rebuilding one that you reduced to rubble so recently." Hinata purposely employed twisted words to throw him off.

"Hey, that's a lot of r's…" he muttered indignantly. But he left her alone after that, finally heeding Hinata's blatant hint to "fuck off".

The two stepped into the circle of flickering light cast a by the fire, where Panther and Cat sat across from each other. Briefly, Hinata wondered how the steady glow of the flames could create such fluttery angles on their faces. Maybe they were sneaking shy glances at the other person, but Hinata was too distracted to take further notice, too tired to bother.

"Let's go," she said quietly. Even her near-whisper clanged about too loudly in everyone's ear and in sheer need to dilute the noise, the four ANBU burst into a flurry of activity. Even the Frog ANBU had stopped cracking jokes and remaining closed lipped. All Hinata could think of was how she missed the Akatsuki, how everything was before the recent events that sent the tentative peace she had crashing to pieces.

Their campfire conversations, even the very first one, were never so uncomfortable.

"We stop here," Itachi would say. Sometimes, he wouldn't even say anything and simply stopped. Hinata and Kisame would skid to a stop a tree or two later and Hinata's Byakugan would briefly scan the area and Kisame would briefly sniff the air. Not that they needed to, as Itachi had yet to be wrong on a suitable place to camp. The three would drop to the ground below simultaneously with nary a sound, cloaks billowing in silent breeze.

The artist in Hinata marveled at the fluidity of their movements as the three of them went about efficiently to set up camp. Each time, each started with different tasks, yet the three's actions together so well it seemed premeditated. Perhaps it was, on a subconscious level, since they had traveled together for four years and had grown accustomed to reading the slight cues of the others' body language.

"Running, flying, or swimming?" Kisame would ask, offering a menu of dining options even though he didn't even need to ask. Itachi liked fish the most, while Hinata preferred poultry. The shark-man had been given game duty indefinitely after the group had been subjected to sushi for three straight months, followed by quail for four. Even Kisame, who had no preference for his food provided that it wasn't cooked too thoroughly, couldn't stomach the thought of fins or feathers for several weeks afterwards.

While Kisame was off prowling the surrounding foliage, Itachi and Hinata would build the campfire. Sometimes, Itachi was willing to show her some of his more creative fire techniques from back before he had been proclaimed a genius and therefore expected to surpass even himself. Hinata's favorite was one of the more recent ones, where Itachi managed to encase his entire arm in flames that didn't burn his clothes. He had even admitted that his younger self had ruined many a black shirt (and one time, even his ponytail) in order to perfect the technique. It wasn't one of the most impressive jutsus, but the rare glimpse of a more human Itachi attached to it made it the most meaningful one to her.

Dinner would be in silence, but it would the kind of silence in which they spoke volumes to each other. Hinata could inhale here, and the atmosphere would fill her chest, invigoratingly cold and crisp, enough to shock her senses to life.

And immediately after their meal, they settled for the night. Guard duty was always in the order of Hinata, Itachi, then Kisame, two hours each. Even on the most urgent mission, both Itachi and Kisame insisted on a good night's rest. It made unusual sense, although Hinata wondered why it never occurred to ninjas back home, as they were never allowed more than two hours' sleep on an important mission.

In the morning, when watery rays of dawn trickled down to the site, all trace of her team had been washed away from the clearing.

No sign of ANBU remained.

They returned to Konoha just as sunlight welled over the horizon, pooling in golden wells to replace previous shadows. Passing the looming gates unlocked something within each one of them and their masks involuntarily fell away. The inevitability of reality enveloped their senses. Slowly, Hinata inhaled. Then, she exhaled. The air was still thick with something that threatened to steal the very breath from her lungs.

"We report at the Hokage Tower at noon. Prepare your mission files." Cat ordered flatly for appearances sake. The four of them split in four different directions, even though they lived in the same home. They met back up inside the house. Sakura was already in the shower when Hinata entered the door.

For a single moment, the remaining three stared at their feet, standing awkwardly in the living room. Then Sasuke turned to his room with a huff and Naruto scampered to the kitchen, muttering something about ramen. Hinata stayed in the living room, seated primly on the gray couch. She reached up and untied her hair, letting it fall in a heavy wave of silk across her shoulders. Gently, the former Hyuuga ran her fingers through it until all the knots had been smoothed out. She glimpsed her image in the glass of the coffee table and too-large eyes smudged by insomnia stared back at her. Then the abrupt urge to grab a kunai seized her hand and she gripped a lock of hair by her face. Suddenly, it felt like her hair was suffocating her, yet another restraint that refused her freedom. She had to get rid of it, it had to go…

Three polite knocks at the front door surprised her enough that Hinata dropped the kunai with a loud clang on the glass. Three strands of hair drifted to floor. She stared at the three black strands, where they disrupted the stark lines of the floor. The person at the door knocked again and Hinata shook her head, breaking herself from the hypnotic spell of her thoughts.

"Delivery for Kaeru-san."

The Hyuuga seal on the letter swam in her vision, too vivid to ignore yet too blurry to focus on. Hinata received the letter mutely and closed the door in the mail-nin's face.

Attached to the large fancy envelope was small scroll, which contained a note from the Godaime herself. Hiashi had insisted that the invitation be delivered formally, but due to the code of ANBU, he wasn't allowed to know Hinata's true identity. Therefore, Hinata was allowed to wear her mask, complete with its powerful jutsu that prevented even the Byakugan from piercing it.

The envelope contained an invitation to a banquet to be held in the Eagle ANBU's honor. Hinata tugged lightly at the gold ribbon tied at the corner. It uncurled into her hand, silky texture tickling her palm. There was pure gold thread weaved into silk, the best quality that money could buy. The Hyuuga would not forgo any expenses on this banquet – call them arrogant and condescending, but they were anything but cheap.

Hinata suddenly wanted to laugh at herself, loudly enough so the world would wonder. She, the reject of the Hyuuga, was being honored for using skills she had learned from the most notorious missing-nin organization of the land. The irony of it was impossible to overlook. She wouldn't be surprised if this upcoming banquet rivaled her own birthday parties from when she was still Hyuuga.

An genuine chuckle escaped Hinata lips and she had to physically restrain her giggles from bubbling past her lips. Pressing a finger gently to her smile, Hinata returned to her room and tucked the invitation into her pack.

Nothing in this world could be as agonizing as attending this banquet, and Hiashi had seen to it that Kaeru would have no choice but to appear. But the vindictive triumph behind her situation was visible to only herself, and it was a secret she much delighted in keeping.

Two missions later, on the day of the banquet, Hinata was still dizzy with the residue of hidden victory. She faced the mirror, adorned in the silk kimono especially purchased for this occasion. It was a bold red that evaded being blinding by just a shade. The dark, dainty silhouettes of birds dotted the fabric against the fiery background of sunset delineated by gold embroidery. She wondered if anyone would recognize the colors of the Akatsuki. Even her obi, a hue of violet so pale that most would mistake it for the white of the Byakugan, was tied in a manner reminiscent of the style Hinata wore as the Chitsuki-hime.

She had splurged nearly all her savings from her short time with ANBU for this custom-made slur against the Hyuuga.

"You look…right," Naruto told her, frowning at his strange choice of wording. Hinata hummed her agreement, cognizant of what he meant. Naruto, of all people, could sympathize with her need to rub her hard-won abilities in the faces of those who dared to doubt her.

"Good," she turned with a smile. "Thank you."

The blonde returned her smile with a hearty one of his own. He patted Hinata on the shoulder in way of encouragement.

"You're awesome, Hinata-chan. Got get 'em."

"She won't be able to 'get 'em' if you make her late, Naruto-baka." Sakura entered, wrapped in an exquisite deep green kimono that complimented her jade eyes. As she had also aided in care of Hyuuga Hanabi, Sakura, too, had received an invitation. Of course, there hadn't been any sensitive letters attached to it regarding S-class secrets, so the young medic got her a day later via regular mail.

"Haha, sorry, sorry, Sakura-chan!" Naruto quickly made his exit with a 'have fun, ladies!', complete with a Nice-guy pose. Sakura shrugged her shoulder with slight smile.

"That's Naruto for you," she commented too nonchalantly to be genuine. Her minutely crooked smile indicated her nervousness. But she was trying, and Hinata returned her smile warmly.

After Hinata's talk with Sasuke, it seemed that slowly, hesitantly, the Uchiha began to accept that Sakura cared for him. Whether he cared for her in return, no one, not even Sasuke himself, could be quite sure. But nonetheless, the tension that had built around Hinata's presence in the Team 7 household was gradually ebbing away.

"Hey, let me help with your hair." Sakura glided behind the other girl and began brushing out her long locks.

Only the smooth rhythm of a comb through silky hair followed Hinata's murmur of thanks. Conversation was stilted, yes, but Hinata could almost say that she and Sakura were friends.

When Sakura finished she handed the former Hyuuga her mask. Hinata settled it over her face and admired the way the dark loops of hair elegantly framed the nacre-colored mask. She looked exquisite, even dainty, although the very presence of the animal mask commanded authority.

The bird's formidable beak seemed to smile approvingly.

Satisfied with a job well done, Sakura left through the front door as Hinata slipped out the back. Guarding her identity was imperative, so anything relating to the Eagle was treated carefully. No one, save her team, must know that the Eagle had connections to the jounin Team 7. Even her escort was required to be masked.

"You're late."

The Cat was waiting just outside the Hyuuga main gate, clad in a stately black kimono tied with an Uchiha-red obi. Midnight hair framed the stark porcelain features of the feline, whose expression was just as unreadable as the one wore it. They had agreed to meet away from the house to keep their identities a mystery.

"I'm on time," Hinata countered softly, with little ire in her voice. He offered her his arm and the former Hyuuga accepted it, settling her thin hand in the fold of his elbow.

"Washi-sama, Neko-san; our most sincere welcome." The gate guard bowed low and opened the sturdy doors for them. Hinata halted the Cat before he could step in and he turned to her curiously.

"And thank you for agreeing to be my escort."

"Mmmh."

Satisfied that she had voiced her gratitude, since no shinobi preferred wearing his mask off duty, Hinata followed the Cat through the Hyuuga gate onto the familiar path that led to the main house.

The gardens bordered either side of the pathway were simple and majestic, with foliage impeccably groomed to carry graceful lines pleasing to the eye. Utterly utilitarian, yet stunning in its effect. They had even gone so far as to hire someone to summon a single, magnificent eagle to soar high over the grounds. Indeed, the Hyuuga had spared no expense to honor the savior of their precious heir.

"Washi-sama is here!"

A flurry of activity erupted as Hinata and her escort walked down the path. The Hyuuga that flowed to greet her remained composed, but the overwhelming respect the clan held for the Eagle struck Hinata hard in the gut.

"Washi-sama!"

Never had she been held in such esteem by her clan. An extraordinary feeling swelled inside a void Hinata never realized still existed. It took her several moments to name it - pride. Provided, the previous Eagle's formidable reputation that laid much of the foundation of their high regard. Nonetheless, it was her own deeds as the new Eagle had propelled her into a position of honor in the Hyuuga's critical eye.

Her.

Hinata.

Weak, little Hinata-chan, who was never quite good enough. That was who they celebrated as worthy. Even if only she could savor this proud, lonely moment, Hinata couldn't repress the swell of joyous pride that swept through her veins.

"Welcome, Washi-sama!"

Hinata curbed the impulse to rip her mask away and bare the face that had been scorned for so many years, cheering "Do you see me now?" to these admiring expressions. Instead, she gestured gracefully in acceptance of their praise. Konoha had given her an alias to subdue her, yet the respect that the Hyuuga attached to her name had made it a beautiful thing to hear.

Even the food tasted more magnificent than the usual feast served at a Hyuuga event. Perhaps it was because every dish was a delicacy from some far corner of the world, but Hinata suspected that the flush of pride humming through her body had something to do with the delightful taste in her mouth as well. Thankful for the mask that covered her features, Hinata allowed a giddy grin to spread across her face.

The Cat, who was seated to her right, tilted his head warningly. Hinata heeded his message. Even though she showed no outward sign of her smug fulfillment, she was surrounded by ninjas with senses honed so finely that they could read her very thoughts if Hinata breathed suspiciously.

She glanced to her left, where Hanabi sat in a severe, blue kimono that seemed to be holding her upright rather than the other way around. She had lost a large amount of weight since the last time Hinata saw her, and seated next to the larger frame of Hiashi, Hanabi seemed small and lost in the voluminous layers of her attire. Yet even though her sister had physically shrunken, there was something in her air that allowed no one to think of her as a child.

Her little sister had grown up these past few weeks, finally filling out her role as the honored heir of Hyuuga.

Hinata allowed a small smile to curve her lips as a new kind of pride curled warmly inside. She had been staring a little too long, and Hanabi's pale eyes swiveled to lock on to her own. Where a child would have blushed in shame upon meeting eyes with a reminder of her failure, Hanabi bowed instead, not an inch too shallow to be disrespectful, nor an inch too deep to be obsequious. Her face remained neutral, again, not a degree too stern to be rude, nor a degree too delighted to be euphoric. Since Hanabi was seated, she simply ensured that her shoulders followed into the bow. She carried herself as a Hyuuga perfectly: mysterious and powerful, worthy of a great clan.

Hinata returned the bow just as exactly, although she was sure to keep hers a fraction of an inch higher than Hanabi's. As the one who did the favor unto the other, it would actually be condescending for Hinata to bow lower than Hanabi. The other young woman noticed this small nuance and projected a small amount of respect into her cool eyes. In turn, Hinata nodded slightly once, a signal that she received and appreciated the other's sentiment.

Both satisfied with the exchange, the two returned to their previous activities. Exhausted from a simple Hyuuga encounter that should have been easy, Hinata gestured discretely to the Cat that she wanted to leave soon. He shifted and she knew he understood. They would be leaving as soon as socially acceptable after the speeches.

As if on cue, Hiashi, who sat to Hanabi's left at the head of the table, stood to give the first toast. Out of habit, Hinata listened closely to the first few words and then quickly moved her attention elsewhere since she had heard this same speech of honor multiple times during her childhood.

"…so in honor of this most illustrious guest of the Hyuuga, a toast!" Hinata mouthed the tired words exactly as Hiashi spoke them. She mechanically raised her cup to the air as the humming approval of the entirety of her former clan rang around her.

That was only the first of several.

To Hiashi's left, the full council of Hyuuga elder was also seated. As ninjas all commanding great respect, it was also tradition that each one of them gave a speech as well in acknowledge of the Eagle ANBU. The members of the council haven't changed in the past decade. Though Hinata did not have their speeches memorized to the very last inflection of tone, she still had a very clear idea of what they each would say. Down to the last word.

Hinata allowed herself one small but satisfying sigh as she and the Cat stepped away from the compound. All the tension tingling at her fingertips scattered.

"Thank you, again, for being my escort."

Hinata meant it too. The Cat was all too intimate with the stifling and intricate subtleties of the greater clans. She smiled up at the elegant lines of the feline mask as she led the other away from the perusal of the thrum of leaving crowd of guests. The tall sides of the alleyway leaned over them protectively.

"It was my pleasure."

Itachi raised his mask, revealing the amusement in his eyes. He bent and laid a chaste kiss at the side of Hinata's temple. She revealed in his distant embrace momentarily and then stepped away.

"You should go before they r—"

"HINATA! HINATA!!"

Kiba's bellowed interrupted her before she could warn Itachi away. The dog boy pelted around the corner, only to freeze upon seeing the Eagle in the arms of a strange, dark ANBU. Shino and Kurenai screeched to a stop soon after Kiba, staring at the pair.

"Hyuuga Hinata," Shino gritted out hoarsely, "what the hell is going on?"

The buzzing hum of agitated kikai bugs echoed in the stony way.

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It was dusk, and the moon welled over the dappled fringe of shadowed trees on the horizon. The cold tinted the sky a strange hue of blue that reminded Hinata of Naruto's eyes when he was angry. The chill in the air also stung her nose, and she wanted to cry. She sniffled, angling her gaze upwards so the tears would not fall.

"Oy, Soupy, what's with the tears?" Kisame shifted so he could rest his elbow on Hinata's head. "You passed the test. You're assigned to our team now, so I'm probably not allowed to eat you until you're old and tough. You should be happy."

The former Hyuuga hiccupped and gave the shark-man a watery smile. She didn't even know why she was crying.

"I'm...I..." Hinata struggled to find the word that would describe the monsoon of emotion driving her tear ducts: joy, guilt, pride, shame, resolve, despair, hope... Then, the word she sought to find came to her.

"I'm...content. Not quite happy, but content, for the first time in my life." Now that Hinata defined herself in these words, a brilliant smile lit her face, because she had realized why she could finally breath and not feel like someone's hand was constricting her throat.

Itachi's eyes met hers across the campfire, his expression carefully blank. For several long moments, he looked so severe that Hinata expected him to berate her for sounding stupid. But then, the corners of his lips curved ever so slightly. Hinata froze, taken aback by the absolute transformation a millimeter's movement did to the Uchiha's face.

For the first time, Hinata witnessed Itachi smiling at her, and only her.

"I've felt the same before."

And just as fleeting as the shadow cast by a bird's wing, his smile was gone, and he refused to meet her gaze again. Hinata was left with a new, albeit small, yearning in her chest. She didn't realize it then, but at a young age of fifteen, Hinata was already beginning to fall in love.

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A.N. I know, I know, this chapter is thoroughly swiss cheesified. Story holes will be patched with relative speed via flashbacks in the following chapter. All criticism is welcome. Whining, no matter how cute you are, is not. :)


	15. SCROLL 15: Circle

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Come Full Circle

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By Airyo

Scroll 15: Circle

Hinata immediately noticed Itachi at the edges of her senses. After some five years in almost constant contact with them, her aura was unusually sensitive to her Akatsuki teammates. None of the other members of her current team noticed Itachi a few miles away from their campsite.

"I'm going to train a little," Hinata murmurred to the others. The Cat nodded his permission after sharing a quick glance with the Frog. It was understandable that the disgraced Hyuuga was feeling particularly agitated as the date for the dreaded banquet in her honor drew closer. Despite her more than dubious record, Hinata had been on nothing but her absolute best behavior since her capture a good halfyear back. As of late, both Naruto and Tsunade had relaxed the near stranglehold on the famed Chitsuki-hime, allowing her a much longer leash.

Some things people can never quite get rid of - like the permanent image of a weak, timid fourteen-year-old Hinata.

She let a wry smile cross her face at that thought as she entered the clearing where Itachi was waiting for her. Hinata landed several yards away from her teammate, and she remained at that distance, slightly unsure on how to address someone who had so recently treated her no better than a disobedient pet. She slowly raised her mask for the simple sake of something to do and a puff of fresh air caressed her damp face.

The Uchiha made no move to approach her, immovable as the hard line of his mouth. Both of them stood, not quite facing the other, and the forest was silent, breathless around them as it waited for the next move. Finally, Itachi shifted and the frozen tension that held him up so stiffly snapped like a thin thread. He looked tired, even worn. Alarm coursed through Hinata's system, burning away any resentment that had poisoned her emotions. His shoulders drooped imperceptively and only long months of perusal granted her the awareness to notice it. She took several running steps to him, and stopped, though still out of arms reach.

"Wha...what's --"

"Events..." Itachi admitted, "are not occurring as they should." His eyes hardened and the steeliness of his usual demeanor returned.

"It is no longer safe for you to return to the Akatsuki at this point." He shook his head with a sharp precision that forced Hinata's protest to fade from her throat.

"Your mission to infiltrate Konoha still stands. However, the ultimate purpose to it has changed. It is imperative that you prove your loyalty to Leaf within the week, if not sooner. Konoha will protect those it considers its own."

A chill curled down Hinata's spine and her mind raced for the possibilities that would explain Itachi's cryptic words. Something in his manner put her at great unease - she could almost describe Uchiha Itachi as afraid.

Afraid.

The word stuck her hard enough in the gut to leave her gasping. Her pillar, the unshakable, unbreakable Uchiha Itachi, was afraid. The foundations of her world shuddered ominously. A sinister voice whispered at the back of her mind, hinting that fate held certain patterns that no one could ever escape. Images of Naruto burst into in the forefront of her mind's eye and the pain of memory was almost physical.

"W-why?" she whispered hoarsely. Had she been building a false ideal around Itachi just as she had around Naruto? For a moment, Hinata doubted that she even saw the man stand before her. Maybe he was a simple mirage, conjured by the wild imagination of a hurt, little girl.

"Hinata." The stern way he uttered her name brought her plummeting back to reality. The way he addressed her was familiar, real. No one else, not even her imagination, could weave together a lie that mimicked the subtle lilt in his voice as those soft syllables passed his lips.

"I understand," she replied. She forcefully commanded her panic to disperse and the calm of many years as an accomplished kunoichi enveloped Hinata. All the other silly distractions were locked away, for now, deep in her mind. Itachi could not inform her of the details because she was in a dangerous position to know. Even this meeting was a danger in it of itself.

"We must seal away your memories."

The suggestion didn't shock Hinata as much, for they had once discussed the possibility that Hinata's sealing abilities may be utilized this way. Lying and word-twisting were not difficult arts, but in a village with the Byakugan and Sharigan at its disposal, further measures against discovery must be taken.

"All of them?"

"Enough for it to appear that you were merely under my control as puppet and nothing else."

Though she showed no outward sign of it, Hinata swallowed at the implication. For her be able to convincingly carry out this story, nearly all her happy memories with the Akatsuki must be locked away. The way, she could truthfully declare her allegiance to the Leaf before perusing eyes.

"All of them," she correctly softly. All of the memories that she held dear.

"Why?" She had to ask again, on the miraculous possibility that he would tell why she had to give up some of her dearest possessions on a simple command.

"You know I cannot say." Itachi paused, thinking. "Trust me," he added. The lines on his face seemed to deepen and age his features. He seemed ancient, much too ancient for a man of twenty-four.

Even he didn't sound quite sure of himself.

She knew that he couldn't reveal his reasons. Nonetheless, it stung to be rejected the right to know. A resigned serenity filled her chest and Hinata merely nodded.

She had no more than an hour to complete a foolproof filter for her memories. Hinata worked efficiently, a strange, masochistic energy fueling the speed in her writing as she churned out seal after seal on the ground. Itachi watched her silently, unreadable as always.

The hour passed entirely too rapidly. Hinata bit her lip, as she completed the circular design and set the mixture of blood and ink to the side. Her knees cracked loudly as she rose, echoing as if protesting the act she was about to perform.

Itachi stood beside her, waiting. Hinata didn't meet his gaze, and stepped into the center of the inky lines. If a corner of her heart was screaming at her, she pretended not to hear.

"I'm ready," she announced in a low tone. Hinata settled herself gracefully on the ground, looking expectantly at the other. To her surprise, he had moved closer to her, also within the seal boundary.

"You don't have to be within the bounds to set trigger seals," she reminded him needlessly. His body language clearly conveyed his cognizance of such a fact.

"The previous time," he started, "it was inappropriate of me." Hinata expected more, but the Uchiha remained reticent in his speech. The slight regretful corners of his mouth hardened, and he pinned her with an almost furious glare.

"Do not trust anyone save for myself and Kisame. And even then, only if you're absolutely certain of our identities." The furrow in his brow scared Hinata and it only disappeared after she promised wholeheartedly. Satisfied with her response, Itachi stepped out of the bounds of the circle.

Hinata looked at him, wishing that he would quickly complete the process so she wouldn't have to wallow in her own misgivings. She had survived her imprisonment solely because of her precious memories that surrounded her like protective ghosts. Hinata had clung to these images like a lifeline. Now, she hung over the gaping maw of circumstance, and Itachi was asking her to release her hold, giving her nothing to bank on except a "trust me" and the very memories that she would soon seal away.

A small voice valiantly reminded her Itachi would hold the trigger seals that could unseal them at a later time, but Hinata shook her head. It was like asking someone drowning to hold her breath underwater for a few seconds until help came. Logic could do no part in this equation. And she didn't know when help would come. Something was deeply wrong in the Akatsuki, and if even Itachi was afraid...

With a burst of mad, desperate courage, Hinata grasped Itachi's face and kissed him forcefully, projecting every broken, mixed emotion in her being. He trembled once in her embrace, and then stood completely still, allowing her tears to flow down along the line of his jaw.

"Come to the Hyuuga banquet," she pleaded. "Let me have one good thing to remember."

And now, even this memory must be tainted with acting.

Itachi removed his mask and eyed Team 8 disdainfully. A condescending smirk completely out of character curled his lips. Even though Hinata could not see it as she kept her eyes on the other three, the hair on the nape of her neck stood up, prickling under the uncomfortable force of his smirk.

"What, you mean this little doll?" he teased, baiting, prodding team 8 into a fury so they wouldn't notice the details.

As one hand brushed Hinata's jaw in a greasy manner, his other raced through the trigger seals behind her.

It had begun.

Hinata could feel the memories slip away from her mind like water through open fingers. The sharp intelligence in her eyes faded as she struggled instinctively to keep hold of her slippery thoughts.

Kisame...her eyes narrowed... the first time they met, he had called her something. A joke. Laughing. Sharp teeth. Gone.

Itachi ripped off the Eagle mask and Hinata gasped, eyes wide and blank. A low growl settled deep in Kiba's throat and she knew that he saw her dumb expression, that the seed of their story had been planted.

A pained expression crossed her face as Itachi wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted them both to the air, baiting her genin teammates. She acted the perfect role of the damsel in distress, though she couldn't quite remember why anymore. Why was Itachi carrying her like a broken rag doll, and why did she let him? Urgency pushed her actions, but she couldn't recall why.

It had started with the move that brought her to Itachi's interest…she had done something incredible, out of character, what she couldn't recall. But he noticed and spared her life. Boulders. Rain. Dust. Gone.

Her head lolled against Itachi's shifting shoulder, hardly aware of the battle he had led Team 8 into.

Another image flashed by, dancing tauntingly as it spun out of reach. The cavern where she was first presented to the Akatsuki. Itachi standing up for her. Her fear. her hope, her choice. The echo of dripping water. Judgement. Resolve. Gone.

Itachi twisted and he jarred her slightly. Hinata blinked, watching the ground below drift away and then come whipped back into focus with each leap. If only her memories would do the same.

One after another, the brief moments she'd shared with Itachi and Kisame pulled away from her futile grasping. Kisame left first. That ubiquitous sharky smile of the blue-man left her and Hinata could only faintly recall the dark shape of someone who was powerful, capable of injuring her. Distrust filled the void by instinct.

'Evil. Monstrous. Heartless.' Her mind struggled to fill the unnatural vacuum.

'Wrong! False!' some part of her countered frantically. Hinata didn't have the energy to listen.

Hoshigaki Kisame: a dangerous S-class mission-nin. Her memories could surmise that much, and not much more.

Uchiha Itachi: also dangerous, S-class. The name was familiar, yet strange, and it battered the rising barrier in her mind, sending shuddering pulses through her entire body.

Panic welled in her throat like poison and Hinata thrashed wildly in Itachi's arms. A high scream lit the air like a bolt of lightning, sizzling in sorrow. Hinata took a breath and realized her mouth was open, and that the scream was her own.

"Hinata, stop."

His expressionless was strained with something, but it was his voice, still calm, real. There. She felt the rise and drop of a smooth leap as he led them on a wild goose chase.

Itachi.

Hinata squeezed her eyes shut in concentration, focusing herself on this name that had meant something important to her. Forest green reminded her of the days they spent hurtling through the branches, chasing this mission or that. Mission. Purpose. A place that needed her. There was fire. Warm fire.The glowing presence of this memory calmed her, and Hinata dared to open her eyes.

That was mistake. She blinked, and the memory had been wiped clean right before her eyes. Why was this man even here?

Itachi.

Gritting her teeth, Hinata slammed all her willpower into keeping the last few memories left in her.

Itachi.

It was an important name. A nagging image pounded at the back of her mind, just outside her peripheral thoughts. A strange curl of Itachi's lips danced further away in her mind, a smile, and just like that, it vanished. She could no longer remember if Itachi had ever smiled at her. A twist of lips. A dimple. Joy. Gone.

The seal was too powerful. She couldn't the workings of something she herself had created.

Itachi.

What was that?

Ita--

With a calculated twist, this stranger who held her evaded Shino's kikai.

Fear and adrenaline simmered low in her abdomen. The figure of someone adorned in crimson called distantly in her mind but the hum of the present drowned out the sound and Hinata swatted the figure away, filling this emptiness with fear of the unexplained.

Uchiha Itachi: S-class missing-nin, who had massacred the Uchiha clan.

Evil. Monstrous. Heartless.

Hated.

She had get away.

Hinata writhed in his arms, this time with deadiler purpose. She still remembered her techniques. Itachi released her, and he sped away unharmed. She began to fall to the ground. Her ornate kimono fluttered around her numb limbs, and her back arched with the pressure of the rushing air. Her body had the same haunting lines as an injured bird, spiraling from the sky. Beautiful. Tragic.

She faced the clouds, and briefly, met the eyes of this killer named Itachi. Sharingan spun in his ruby irises, spinning with something Hinata would have called sorrow in another's eyes.

But this was a monster, and he would not feel sorrow. Could not. Hinata shook her thoughts free of that strange caller at the back of her mind and closed her eyes. A headache threatened to storm between her eyes and any notion of the strangers she once knew left her.

"HINATA!"

Kiba's bellow startled her out of her reverie. The ground came rushing towards her. Adrenaline shot through her veins and Hinata's eyes snapped open. Her lithe body uncurled and the muscles remembered. Despite being encumbered by a restrictive kimono, Hinata landed soundlessly with grace.

A split-second later, Kiba landed beside her, eyes frantically searching her body for injury.

"Kiba-kun," she assuaged softly, the name strange on her tongue, "I'm fine, just…so confused." But her hands trembled, and it didn't escape the dog-man's notice.

"…We're here," he assured his long-lost teammate. "We'll get rid of him."

Hinata looked up and realized that the entire Rookie 9 of her generation had arrived, driving Itachi away. His eyes met her one last time – Hinata refused to keep the gaze and looked down.

"I'll be back. That puppet is still under my control!" Itachi threw over his shoulder almost smugly. And then he fled, disappearing over the high walls of the Leaf. A sharp order from the approaching figure of Tsunade halted any that wanted to give chase.

"You're safe now," Kiba added. "We reported that Itachi had was trying to renew his control jutsu, and managed to stop it just in time. He can't kidnap you now." He drew her into an awkward hug, brimming with brotherly affection, yet unsure how to approach a distance set by half a decade of time. Hinata stiffly embraced him back.

Logically, she was safe now. But unease still sent tremors through her limbs, yet somehow, Hinata knew, that she could never reveal this anxiety. Something still wasn't right. The sense of an off-ness gripped her. She trembled and hugged Kiba tighter, for the need something substantial beneath her fingers.

"I'm back," she whispered. She was back: back to the floundering days as a weak genin, floating without an anchor to keep her focused. Knowledge and skill had given her courage, but bereft of one, Hinata felt like she was drifting back to the scared little girl she had been.

Misunderstanding Hinata's words, a wide grin split Kiba's face as their friends joined them.

"Yes, yes you are back, Hyuuga Hinata."

She just bit her lip, and ignored the wrongness of it all.

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Very, very short chapter, but quite crucial. Probably will be updating again, soon.

HOLE POLL

Okay, not really a poll, but a call for any plot holes you've seen, anything you didn't quite follow. I'm pretty close to wrapping this story up so in about 5 chapters, everyone's help is needed!


	16. SCROLL 16: Fugue I

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Come Full Circle

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Scroll 16: Fugue I

Hinata awoke to a particular fogginess of mind that persisted no matter how she tried to focus her thoughts. Slowly, she recognized that she was back in the room she shared with Sakura, but it puzzled her as to why she would be taking a nap in the middle of the day. The sun was dazzling in its midday splendor and Hinata was forced to close her eyes to nurse the sharp pain lancing through her eyes. A whirlpool of color and tears filled her closed lids, and Hinata rubbed her eyes vigorously to stave it off.

It was terrifying to be suddenly bereft of that mental acuteness after so many years as a ninja, a career where even a split-second's worth of stupidity was disastrous. Reasonless panic threatened to seep into her circling thoughts. By sheer ingrained instinct, Hinata pushed back such a reaction and focused on the information she did have.

The events of yesterday pushed to the forefront of her mind and Hinata couldn't help but acknowledge the chilling reality of it.

She had lost her memories.

It was difficult to go through her mental time line to notice the glaring holes in between the few memories she could recall. The gaping blackness overshadowed the thin slivers of lucidity she could call her own in her recollections. She felt that if she spent too much time with her mind, she could very well drown in the endless voids of it.

Before she had left Konoha, 14-year-old her had found solace inside the solidity of her own mind. Here, Hinata could harbor her secrets and dreams, cradled in the soft cushion of hope only fitting for the most precious jewels. Her own mind was her fortress, her refuge. But now, the princess herself had been barred from the very castle that was supposed to protect her.

Terrifying.

Now she was left to the wolves that circled outside the walls, waiting for a chance to pounce.

"Hinata."

She started, and turned to smite the intruder. Upon realizing it was Naruto, Hinata immediately stayed her hand with a precision she never remembered having. Her heart beat a surprisingly calm rhythm that she couldn't recall from all her encounters with Naruto.

"Naruto-kun."

He wore an expression mixed between a grin and a wince. Assured that Hinata wasn't going to seal him in some way, the blond stepped into the room.

"You haven't called me that in a while," he offered uncomfortably. How do you approach an amnesiac? Even Hinata herself couldn't quite answer that question. A part of her wanted to throw the blanket back over her head and try to desperately ignore the reality of this world. Another part wanted to scream and rage at the confusion that coursed through her veins. Instead, she smiled stiffly, fighting the memory of a blush from her cheeks.

"I haven't forgotten that much," she whispered. Naruto seemed relieved.

"Okay, good…that's good," he muttered. "I'm supposed to get you to the Hokage tower as soon as you wake up." Hinata frowned, a wayward thought reminding her of Konoha protocal.

"Why am I not at the hospital?" …chained to a bed. Hinata neglected to add that last part, but the purse in her lips more than sufficed to convey her meaning. Naruto forced a grin, and this time, it contained a little less wince than last time.

"Sakura-chan convinced Tsunade-baba to transfer you here. Something about how waking up in a familiar environment would help."

"Sakura-san?" Hinata echoed in mild surprise. The past few months, in more clarity than her other memories, flashed through her mind. The pink-haired medic didn't have that many reasons to be going out of her way to help her. As she followed Naruto to the Hokage tower, she made a mental note to thank her.

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Hinata spent the next few weeks juggled between Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Ibiki as they picked her brain for any lingering memories that could negate her story. But, truthfully, she remembered nothing except vague images of the past five years, so even Hiashi couldn't catch her in a lie she didn't tell. However, Hinata could more clearly remember some of the events occurring after her capture, as if she were a spectator in her own body. Jiraiya surmised that Itachi needed to renew his control jutsu over Hinata regularly, and her capture disrupted the easy access he had when she was on his team, allowing some of her own will to bleed into his. Through their extensive testing, it also became apparent that although Hinata couldn't recall a thing about the people she worked with, the skills she learned from them were still present, including all the seal patterns she'd painstakingly committed to memory over the years.

All in all, it was the only viable conclusion that Itachi had entangled Hinata in a complicated possession jutsu that left her no more freedom than a doll. Though none of them realized it, it was testament to Hinata's great abilities with seals that the evidence was infallible.

Within the month, after her story was confirmed, Hinata was allowed to return to her normal life. Tsunade decided to keep Hinata's situation a secret, though it was no longer considered S-class. She remained assigned with the ANBU Team 7, who had been briefed with the situation with Itachi's control. Awareness of her condition only seemed to endear Hinata more to Naruto, Sasuke, and especially Sakura. No longer did they have to tiptoe around a potentially dangerous intruder among their team - Hinata was now a fellow Konoha shinobi wronged by a common enemy.

Sometimes when not involved with Team 7, Hinata even assisted the hospital with her seals. Sakura was surprisingly friendly with her, going as far as to approach Tsunade on letting Hinata work there. The Godaime was reluctant to accept at first, possibly because of residual doubts on where Hianta's loyalties really lied. But Sakura's earnest (and persistent) recommendations paired with Hinata's spotless alibi made a convincing argument. Something deep inside Hinata's subconscious also warned her that it was crucial to behave as the old her would. Following gut instinct, she played the sweet and timid girl, relying on an old image that no one could ever quite shed of her. Tsunade couldn't help but look more favorably on the former Akatsuki.

Now that Hinata's loyalty had been more firmly established in her mind, Tsunade also directed Jiraiya to work with Hinata every week so both seal masters could improve their art and exchange tips. Jiraiya, the old pervert, leered and cracked lewd jokes the whole time the first few meetings until Tsunade found out about it and made certain with her fists that he behaved himself. It took her a few times of barging in and pounding the old man's face in before he got the idea. Even Sakura and Naruto joined in once.

Hinata found two things striking about the entire situation. One, she never blushed so hard she thought her head would burst, even when faced with Jiraiya's dirtiest jokes. Two, the thought of Naruto helping to defend her honor didn't leave her reeling.

The implications of these two facts together, however, did.

Her archive of her pre-Akatsuki memories were startlingly clear, even more so when she compared them to her present. Hinata could not deny, on any level, that she was a different person. She no longer blushed every other minute, she no longer stuttered out all her sentences, and most importantly, she no longer let timidity restrain her every move. There was a new calm to her thoughts that wasn't there before, like the rippling surface of water that had finally settled into rightness. Yet, how could this be possible, when she was supposedly caught in a half-decade of stagnation? People don't change after taking a long nap, and Hinata couldn't have changed so much if she hadn't even been aware of herself.

Furthermore, her once genuine feelings for Naruto had been replaced. Hinata knew that she wasn't the type of person who could so cleanly wipe away her emotions. Even though Naruto's Cage Seal on her forehead was a form of betrayal that crippled her affections, the lack of bitterness in her could only mean that someone else had replaced him. But who? She couldn't remember, save for a vague feeling of familiarity when she repeatedly dreamed of a phantom in the recesses of her mind.

'Hinata, Hinata' the dark figure at the edges of her dreams would call and her dream self would run after this ghost, driven by hope that she could catch up and demand an answer. She would exhaust herself battling through the endless obstacles in her way, until she only had the energy left to gasp for air, cheek pressed to the ground. It always ended the same way: Hinata curled on the floor, sobbing from the pain of her heart being torn towards some unknown figure hovering just out of reach. She always woke up even more spent than she had been before her sleep. Sometimes, the former Akatsuki could barely manage one good nap over the span of a week.

Her only respite from the plague on her nights appeared in the surprising form of Team 8.

Her new weekly outings with her old team started out awkwardly. The first night that Hinata was free from extensive questioning, she met up with her old teammates at the Edge. At first, the four of them said nothing, and the private booth was heavy with past regrets and current misgivings. Hinata couldn't remember much after her dramatic escape, but the changes that pulled them further apart were still there, like a grievous wound she couldn't remember ever receiving the blow for. The simple sake cup in her hand was the most mesmerizing object she'd ever seen, and she made it apparent by keeping her pale gaze on it. The few times Hinata could muster enough courage to meet the eyes of people she'd abandoned, the other quickly looked away, unsure on how to return Hinata's own look of remorse.

"I'm...glad to be with Team 8 again," she finally whispered. They all heard her; Kurenai's lips tightened to still the quivering, Shino remained too still, and Kiba crushed his cup to shards. Loud swearing filled the air, absurd in juxtaposition against the solemn air. It was too familiar, painfully reminding the others of a time long before. Jarring tension gripped each of them, and for a moment, Hinata feared the present so much that she thought to flee. Something inside calmly refused such an option, much like a disappointed mentor shaking her head. So Hinata remained, frozen in her seat until abruptly, the tension popped like an over-inflated balloon.

Kurenai's shoulders began to shake and she clasped her hand to her face to hide the tears that welled from her eyes. Shino bowed his head and Kiba gritted his teeth, a strange sort of growl in his throat. Akamaru whined in confusion, pulling his tail between his legs.

Then a most unladylike snort escaped Kurenai's clasped hands and she burst out laughing. Her students quickly followed suit. It was so ridiculous, really, that the Team 8 that had been praised for the most exceptional teamwork of their generation could be so broken.

It was difficult, but each of the four wanted to remember better times. Words, at first stilted and soft, quickly grew to bridge the rift of time that split Team 8. That first day, they didn't stop talking until the Edge grew empty of even the most vigilant night-owls and the manager had to firmly asked them to vacate the booth.

Hinata went home with her heart a little fuller than before and her strange dreams didn't bother her as much.

Other things, however, continued to haunt Hinata's thoughts. Namely, the secrets that were locked away in her own mind. Since Hinata still retained all her technical knowledge, she attempted to unseal her memories several times. Unfortunately, the other her had already taken Hinata's curiosity into account, if the gentle but firm backlashes indicated anything. The seal's reaction to her probing only further supported her hypothesis that Konoha's theory was bullshit.

At one time, Hinata had been in control. She had acted on her own accord, thought on her own accord, and judged on her own accord. No one had made her do anything. She was sure of it. That sense of utter accuracy was inexplicable, but definite.

But the definitive nature of her conclusion also begged the unsettlingly question: if Hinata had been in control, why did she stay with the Akatsuki for nearly 5 years? It was not a subject that Hinata dared to think about too long emotionally - the answer could destroy her. Instead, she decided to approach the cold, hard facts first.

Another odd clue was the presence of a seal on her left side. It emitted a sickening chakra that Hinata realized she had been instinctively battling all this time, but the shape of it resembled the Uchiha Sharigan. Hope had flooded her system, since her own ANBU team included both users of that bloodline. And she had the feeling that she might have already confronted one of them about this. The remembered image of Sasuke's shoulder with a familiar scar only secured her decision.

Hinata approached Sasuke during one the rare times he decided to take lunch at home. To insure that he wouldn't avoid the subject, she brought her own lunch and strategically seated herself near him. This way, if he tried to leave, Hinata could very smoothly intercept his path.

"Sasuke."

The Uchiha's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the business-like set of her shoulders and the calculated placement of her chair.

"Yes?"

"May I ask you a question?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You used to just ask directly." Hinata winced, since it was an intentional jab at her memory loss.

"Fine, I will." She stood, and Sasuke shifted slightly, muscles ready to spring him away at a second's notice.

"What's this?" Hinata lifted her shirt, baring the dark seal over her rib cage. Sasuke choked on his rice, face turning an ashen gray. When he finally managed to regain control over his airway, however, the Uchiha remained that pasty, sick color.

"I don't know."

"The hell you don't," she snapped. She had gotten little rest after spending nearly all of last night on another wild goose chase after the personification of a deja vu. The lack of sleep and the lack of memory had made Hinata short-tempered, and the words shot out of her mouth like angry senbon. Definitely not something the old Hinata would have done. The small connection only spurred her more after the information she needed.

"Then what's that on your neck?" Hinata gripped his shoulder and reached for his collar to expose the scar.

"How can you even deny that there is no connection between this? I know I've talked to you about this. I may have lost my memories, but I not stupid, nor helpless." Sasuke shrugged her off, moving to leave the room. Hinata forced herself between him and door, glaring at him as she ripped his collar aside to reveal a shape identical to the shape on her torso. She had had enough of people constantly tiptoeing around her.

"Tell me, or I'll--"

A noise behind her interrupted Hinata. Sasuke looked up and his eyes widened. Sakura was standing at the door, a bag of groceries in one hand and her uniform in the other, staring at her two teammates. With a sinking feeling, Hinata realized that she and Sasuke looked like they were in a very compromising situation, with her top hiked up to her armpits and her hand in the process of ripping off Sasuke's shirt.

"Sakura..." Hinata explained weakly. "This isn't what it looks like." Sasuke slapped Hinata's hand away angrily and brushed past Sakura out the door. The pink-haired girl looked back and forth between Hinata and Sasuke's departing figure, bewildered. Finally, her eyes landed on Hinata's seal.

"I'm sorry...this is really difficult to explain," Hinata muttered. Though Sakura and Sasuke hardly had a healthy relationship, Hinata had hoped to cause as little tension between them as possible. Most of her memories during her time as ANBU were intact, so long as they were in no way connected to the Akatsuki, and she could remember distinctly the shattered expression in Sakura's eyes whenever Sasuke was particularly callous.

Sakura silently set down her bags on the living room table and turned to face Hinata. Her eyes flickered back to Hinata's seal and she realized that she still have her shirt pull up obscenely high. She quickly pulled her shirt back down, biting her lip to fight the urge to fiddle her fingers. That was the old her, and she refused to revert to as she was before, crippled by fear.

"Sakur--"

The pink-haired girl interrupted her for a second time, this time by hugging her. Hinata froze in Sakura's embrace, wondering if the other girl was going to slip a kunai into her side.

"I don't know if you remember last time, but I want to thank you again."

Sakura was thanking her? For nearly sexually harassing Uchiha Sasuke?

The incredulous look on her face must have given away her thoughts, for Sakura laughed and patted Hinata warmly on the shoulder.

"I may be in love with Sasuke-kun, but I'm not brain dead on other things. I've known about the seal for a while now."

Hinata nodded, slightly embarrassed for dismissing Sakura so easily. The girl wasn't the Godaime's apprentice for nothing, and could have easily drawn the line between Sasuke's seal scar and Hinata's own similar seal mark.

"Was that what you were thanking me for?" Hinata wondered softly. The pink-haired girl immediately realized that she was referring to that day in the hospital when Hinata first arrived, and confirmed it with a delighted smile

"Yeah! I wasn't sure if I could say much considering all the S-class secrets stamped over your file, but I was so happy I finally figured out why Sasuke-kun made it back to us. He's good, but not even he could have negated Orochimaru's seal so completely." A blush dusted the apples of Sakura's cheeks.

"We all have our strengths," she revealed with a shy, slightly apologetic smile. "I want to be there for him to complete the areas where he's not as strong. Even if he can do 99 of it all, I want to be there, just for that remaining 1."

The indirect apology for Sakura's fits of jealousy was expected, but the straightforward dedication in Sakura's voice astounded Hinata. It was as simple as that. Three sentences to explain all the hurt and envy. Hinata wondered if she could summarize her own feelings towards Itachi so cleanly.

…towards Itachi…?

Hinata's thoughts had offered Itachi's name so smoothly that she almost didn't catch the insertion. Bile rose in the back of her throat, accompanying the discomfort of the reality that she could remember so little. Sakura noticed the change in her features, and she took her hands.

"It's not a thought process – Kami knows we both have picked someone more reasonable. It's cliché, but your heart remembers the important things even if your mind forgets all reality. I've gone through so many textbooks the past month on memory loss, and I agree with them; events help shape who you are, but memories don't make a personality. You're still the you right before you forgot."

During Sakura's speech, his name slipped away from Hinata's mind again, just as smoothly as it came. She squeezed the other girl's hands tightly, subconsciously fearing the loss of this single pillar in a sea of sand. Sakura spoke the truth, if Hinata's own honed instincts were anything to go by. For some reason, this young woman was rooting for her. Even though she did not have every reason in the world to support Hinata so vehemently, she knew inexplicably that she could trust Sakura in this.

Even though she had forgotten the events behind the lesson, Hinata had learned to always trust her instinct.

"You haven't forgotten everything – I believe this," Sakura was saying. Hinata believed her, nodding vehemently as she clung to every medically linked phrase that came out of the pink-haired girl's mouth. She had to believe her. For all her instincts and feelings, the solidifying feat of wording it lent a sort of security that Hinata needed beneath her feet.

"No," she repeated in agreement, "no, I haven't."

For a moment, Hinata could remember the silhouette in her dreams with a little more clarity. Hope had cast a new ray of light for her.

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The days eventually blended into weeks, and Hinata took comfort in the inanity of her activities. Training, missions, meetings with Team 8 or Jiraiya, shifts at the hospital, and draining naps caught between it all. Circles bruised around her pale eyes, darkening to the point that Hinata even began to avoid mirrors as to keep from scaring herself.

"Haha," Naruto snorted one day. "Hinata-chan looks like Gaara!"

The Kazekage was infamous for his connection with a certain tanuki, as well as the insomnia it induced. Reluctantly, for Hinata was just a little bit vain, she had to agree with his observation.

"Naruto-baka!" Sakura had immediately jumped to Hinata's defense, and to the wrong conclusion.

"Never ever insinuate that Hinata looks like a man!!" Her screamed scolding was accompanied by several painful sounding crashes. Amusing as it was, Hinata simply found the analogy interesting. For one thing, she really did look like a raccoon. For another, the mention of Gaara of the Sand brought about strange feelings of pride in her. She had learned long ago not to pry at her brain with too much persistence, since the most gentle of backlashes left pounding headaches if one experiences it a few too many times. Hinata had even gotten used to the ubiquitous feeling of déjà vu over her shoulder.

But pride at the mention of the Kazekage?

Hinata had no connection to Gaara whatsoever save when the Akatsuki captured him some 4 years ago. She must have had something to do with his near death, and Hinata knew that she wouldn't be proud of the fact that she almost stripped an innocent of his soul. Ninja she may be, but Hinata also believed firmly that depriving a person of his soul was a fate worse than death. If it was as straightforward as she thought, she wouldn't be experiencing pride. There had to be more behind this.

Though the seal prevented her own memories from leaking back, it certainly didn't stop Hinata from attempting to learn everything she could about herself through outside sources. Though the bingo books had a tendency to exaggerate the attributes of the featured ninja, Hinata found it reliable enough when it came to the events surrounding said nin.

The Chitsuki-hime, which Hinata had quickly figured out was herself, had taken part in the soul-extraction ceremony. But due to further information from witnesses among the rescue teams, there was an overwhelming possibility that the Chitsuki-hime was also a key part of the process. Further digging through S-class mission files revealed that she had been standing at the center with Gaara as the only Akatsuki in physical contact with the Kazekage when Naruto's team blasted their way in the hideout.

Hinata searched her mental library of seals for any combinations aiding in tearing the soul form the body. There were a few that came close, but she was relieved to find that she knew nothing of the sort. The main driving force of the ceremony must have been embedded in the enormous stone hands that Akatsuki had been standing on. There was limited information on the actual ceremony, but the file did state the purpose of it.

The Akatsuki had been trying to pull out the Ichibi.

Hinata's thoughts whirled at the connections. Jiraiya had been reluctant to reveal much on Jichurikki seals, but gave her enough for Hinata to piece together that the soul was used to help cage the tailed demons. So if someone wanted to extract the prisoner, it was inevitable for the delicate soul to be damaged. But as to the extent to the damage…if someone with the ability could carefully unknot the soul from the bars of the prison…the victim could still…

Seals flooded into her awareness like a lake swollen with rain. One particular set of enormously complicated seals glowed in the forefront of her mind, overshadowing previous editions that Hinata instinctively knew had failed their duty.

Their duty to prevent the utter destruction of the vessel's soul.

That was her role in this. Most likely to regulate the smooth transition of soul from vessel to vessel. It wouldn't make sense for the Akatsuki to keep the vessels alive from the kindness of their hearts, so they reaped some benefit from a more streamlined move.

This was her first breakthrough in weeks.

It was also her first new lead.

The heady combo of mystery and achievement was too much to bear. Hinata had to talk to Gaara. She thought she could burst from curiosity otherwise.

Fortunately for her, Shikamaru, the Sand liaison, was due for another meeting at Sand next week.

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AN: Strangely enough, as soon I get rid of all the nice juicy material that Hinata can ponder on, I end up writing a chapter where she does nothing but think. Gah. The mixed blessing about writing long fics is that the characters inevitably seize control of my fingers and write it themselves. I just become a helpless little vessel for their devious plans. boohoo.

Sorry for the wait. Can I blame the ol' writer's block (aka, a very dangerous combo of procrastincation and fear of crappy writing…)?


	17. SCROLL 17: Fugue II

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Come Full Circle

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By Airyo

Scroll 17: Fugue II

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AN: Flashback alert. And I'll be referring to Itachi as "Him" during said flashback since Hinata doesn't actually remember any personal interaction with him.

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Getting in on the escort party was surprisingly easy. Hinata simply hinted at the possibilities to Sakura and the girl jumped to manipulate Tsunade into "punishing" her and her team with escort duty.

Shikamaru, on the other hand, immediately knew what was going on when ANBU Team 7 showed to be his display of power, given by the roll of his eyes at Hinata and muttering of something 'troublesome'. As a higher ranked ANBU in the Intelligence department, Nara Shikamaru was privy to a lot more information than Hinata was comfortable with him having. And he was much sharper than Sakura at spotting the revealing nuances.

But he said nothing more on the subject after shooting one last heavy-lidded look in Hinata's direction.

The trip from Leaf to Sand usually took three days for a normal ninja team, two just to clear the lush forests that separated Wind and Fire county. Since the team was comprised of all elite ANBU (though one among them was pretending not to be), the ambassador team reached the tree line just as the second day reached noon.

"We're making good time," the Cat told them after halting. "We can rest while we wait for the sun to set." They needed to cross the largest desert in Wind Country in order to reach Sand in a reasonable length of time, and the only way possibly for 4 people running on foot would be to wait until the night cooled the air enough so their blood wouldn't literally boil over.

The Eagle moved quickly through her tasks, eager catch a few fitful hours of sleep before they had to move again. Her team was kind enough to agree to take the first three shifts of guard duty, well aware of how sorely she needed the few naps she managed.

The change of scenery did wonders for Eagle's sleep cycle and she managed nearly 5 some hours of deep rest. She woke just as sunset brushed the dunes of sand in the distance, reflecting off in an array colored fire. The air was starting to gain a slight chill to it, just enough to tickle her nose as she breathed in the heavy scent of twilight. The warble of drowsy bird echoed along the thinning trunks of desert trees. An early cricket answered in turn.

Eagle held herself still as possible, soaking in her surroundings. She had always appreciated nature, but it as she had lately wrapped herself further and further into her own cyclical thoughts, the Eagle had neglected to enjoy what was around her.

As she gracefully slid to her feet, she made a note to herself to partake in this beauty more often. The wondrous feast before her senses allowed a peace that she hadn't felt in a long while to settle over her. Sundry thoughts no longer seemed to clang about in her skull.

"Eagle-chan! You're awake!" The Frog bounded over with the air of someone with who had a large grin on his face.

"Ah…yes," Eagle replied, mildly amused by the Frog's teeming energy.

"Well, we have a few more hours before the sand doesn't set our feet on fire. Cat-teme on duty right now, prowling as usual around here somewhere. You're next, but you have some time to freshen up before then. Panther-chan said there's a river near here."

Eagle nodded and gathered her things to take a quick bath. Usually such luxuries during a mission were forbidden but with so many hours of idle waiting, it was acceptable. The air was humid enough to be slightly uncomfortable, and the prospect of a cool bath was a welcome idea.

After one last scan of the perimeters to insure that she was alone, Hinata sank into the bubbling river with sigh of relief. It was cold enough to make her teeth chatter, but it was refreshing enough to be worth it. Nonetheless, she hurried as she lathered her long dark locks. The moving current carried away the suds and silky black strands tried to follow, waving gracefully under the rush of clear water. Hinata stood, and her curtain of hair plastered itself to her back. She shivered at the sudden coolness and sped up her ministrations in scrubbing her numbing body.

A curl of foreign chakra licked the edge of her senses.

Hinata froze, suddenly on high alert. She scanned the area in painstaking detail, but the intruder had already retreated outside her range. Now only absently aware of the cold, Hinata finished her bath with a kunai ready at hand.

She didn't mention anything about the foreign chakra to her team when she returned to camp. She could have sworn that she had felt this powerful aura before, and the Eagle wasn't willing to let go of any smallest clue to her past. So when the Cat dropped silently to the ground besides the Eagle, signaling the end of his shift, she nodded curtly and disappeared into the foliage around them. Now was her chance to draw out this familiar presence.

The Eagle rounded by the river, spreading her senses out again for this person.

There, just barely on the peripherals of her recognition.

"You can come out now," she called out. Her voice sounded a lot stronger than she felt inside.

The Eagle blinked, and realized that she was on the ground in a strangling headlock, crushed under the enormous weight of a large man. Her mask lay strewn to the side.

Hinata struggled, fighting the beginning effects of asphyxiation. The man was much too strong, and she could find no leverage to loosen his hold. The edges of her vision darkened, and Hinata let out a gurgling sound of outrage.

Then to her surprise, she was suddenly released and Hinata gulped in lungful after lungful of delicious, necessary air. Large hands lifted her to her feet.

"Sorry Soupy," the man said with a sheepish chuckle. "Didn't mean to try to kill ya."

Hinata stared at him. The man stood at well over 6 feet, and by the looks of his bulky figure, it was pure muscle. Even more disconcerting was the distinguishing features of blue skin and that sharky smile.

Hoshikage Kisame, member of the Akatsuki…

"I'm just so happy you're not dead, too."

Hinata studied his face, which had that sharp, semi-sincere smile stretched across it. She was on friendly terms with this…this criminal? The thought didn't bother her, and Hinata almost smiled.

Then she noticed something off.

"Where…is your cloak?"

Kisame was wearing a form-fitting black top and baggy gray pants, with Samehada slung across his back in a leather belt sheath. All in all, blatantly bereft of the signature black and crimson cloak of Akatsuki.

The shark man shrugged uncomfortably, his jovial manner abruptly diminishing.

"I'm here to warn you, Soupy. Itachi's been missing for over month. Something's not right in the Akatsuki, and I had to get out of there as fast as I could. If you see anyone from Akatsuki, get away. Do _not_ engage in any sort of communication. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Kisame gripped Hinata's arms tightly, yellow eyes boring his meaning into hers. The girl nodded hesitantly and he released his bruising hold on her.

"Even if you see me or Itachi, don't trust us. For all I know, the next time any of us meet, we might not be ourselve–"

Kisame broke off, moving so quickly he blurred in even Hinata's sharp vision. He reached into the nearby foliage. Something in the bushes squeaked and Kisame returned dragging an outraged pink-haired girl by the neck of her top.

"We have a little mole," he groused.

"I told you last time, I'm not a mole," Sakura snapped back, indignantly straightening her top back into place. Her mask had been knocked askew and she centered it on top of her head with a huff.

"Can I eat it?" Kisame asked Hinata with a leer towards Sakura, teeth bared in a humorless smile.

"Um…no," Hinata replied, unsure on how to address such a turn of events. The shark man looked so disappointed that she had to add a "not yet".

Sakura stared at her in disbelief and Hinata looked at her helplessly. What was she supposed to do? She had just gotten caught communicating with a member of the Akatsuki, shirking her guard duty, and removing her ANBU mask. Hinata had just about broken every rule in the ninja handbook, short of actually becoming a missing-nin again.

Sakura seemed surprisingly relaxed even with impending consumption of her bodily organs after she just witnessed Hinata's wrongdoings. The dark-haired girl narrowed her eyes. Too relaxed…as if this wasn't the first time Sakura had met Kisame in person.

She watched as Kisame snapped his teeth almost playfully as Sakura yanked her accusingly pointed finger out of reach. Their interaction of not-quite-prey and not-quite-predator was almost…cute.

"Sakura-chan," Hinata said hesistantly, "why are you here?"

The other girl turned and studied Hinata. Then she exchanged a meaningful glance with Kisame, through which an entire conversation seemed to take place. Several seconds passed before the shark-man acquiesced to something with a resentful nod. Sakura turned back to Hinata.

"Kisame was our informant in Akatsuki."

If he was Konoha's informant…it had to mean he had betrayed her and Itachi while they had been in Akatsuki. She had obviously trusted these two, yet here he was agreeing to Sakura's statement. Some other Hinata in her seemed to be crying in outrage, and she could only watch from the distance and simmer in sympathetic anger. This strange rage seeped through Hinata's chest like acid and she was filled with the sudden urge to punch Kisame. Repeatedly.

"So you knew about _this_?" she hissed, pointing to her seal. He nodded, not even looking at her forehead. He didn't have to.

He had let her fall into this trap, watching with knowing eyes every step of the way. Her throat burned.

"How long?" she snarled. The blue man looked away. Hinata watched with amazed eyes as Sakura laid an encouraging hand on his shoulder. They interacted like comfortable teammates, and a sad sort of envy gripped her. Once, she had just as familiar with Kisame, yet now he was simply a forgotten memory echoing in some part of her life she no longer had.

"Well?" she snapped bitterly.

"Ever since we began suspecting that Pein had other plans."

"We?"

"Me an' Itachi."

"What were you suspecting?"

Sakura interrupted Hinata's curt interrogation with a slightly apologetic wince.

"Backhanded as this is, we do have a mission to complete. You can ask me questions later."

Her subtle scolding was like a slap in the face for Hinata, and she swallowed the hard taste in her mouth as she replaced her mask back on her face. If she continued to look at their guilty faces, she might do something irreparable. The Eagle nodded tersely at the pair before disappearing.

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Hinata made it a point to avoid Sakura, which was simple to do until the team reached Suna, where she was assigned a room with the pink-haired girl. The Kazekage had been surprisingly generous enough (given his history with the Akatsuki) to offer his own home for Shikamaru and his escort, but only three rooms for security purposes; one for the ANBU ladies, one for the ANBU gentlemen, both of which were attached to the ambassador's room.

With the Frog and the Cat taking the first rotation of overlapping shifts, Hinata had no reason to avoid Sakura until it was time to tag the Cat off guard duty. So the two sat silently in their room, with several hours left to kill since there was very little to their belongings that required unpacking.

"I'm going to check out the area," Hinata muttered. She slipped on a civilian yukata over her ANBU uniform and hid her mask in the sleeves.

"But it's forbidden to be masquerade as a civilian during a mi—"

Hinata cut off Sakura's protest with a cold look.

"Why the sudden adherence to rules? Frankly, I really don't want to look like a ninja right now. I'm sure the Kazekage can understand that much."

Hinata exited the room with a sharp snap of the door. The wing was empty, or at least appeared so. It was protocol for any visiting party to provide the home village with a list of all members of the group. Without a doubt, Suna would have taken steps to receive a past-member of the notorious Akatsuki, not when just 5 years ago, that very group tried to take the life of their illustrious Kazekage. Hinata really wouldn't put it past the Sand ANBU to have an ANBU specifically assigned to tailing her.

And while what Sakura mentioned was true, Hinata was hardly masquerading when her invisible Sand friend was well aware of her every action.

"Let's have a little chat with an old friend, shall we?" she murmured to the empty hall.

Hinata could sense the mild alarm emanating from one particular corner of the area, but she made no sign of it despite her inward amusement. It was kind of funny how jumpy her Sand friend was around a persona that she couldn't even remember. Besides, she didn't plan to even look at Gaara no Sabaku until tomorrow's formal conference.

"Would you nice enough to tell me where one Kankorou no Sabaku would currently be?"

Hinata didn't bother to wait for an answer. Instead, she spread out her senses for any vaguely familiar aura in the area. Over the past few months, she found that she could still recognize many auras that she theoretically shouldn't have been able to remember.

Hinata found two that she recognized; one in the Kazekage's office, and another in the yard out back, possibly training. Assuming that the one in the office (and judging by the mildly demonic charge…) would be the Kazekage himself, Hinata headed out to the backyard.

Kankorou was putting away that puppet that he used during the 1st chuunin exam. 'Karasu', Hinata believed it was named.

She stepped out onto the porch. Karasu slithered beside her, eyes staring at her intrusion as two knives clacked menacingly.

"What do you want?" Kankorou growled from behind her.

He was good.

Hinata couldn't keep the giddy smirk off her face.

"It's been a while, Kankorou, no?" He responded with a hard jab in the back. She made no move to retaliate.

She could feel his eyes narrowing and boring into the back of her head. The sensitive hairs on her neck prickled with his unbridled killer intent.

It was _exciting_. The teetering feel of the tension hung on the precise control that the puppeteer held over his partner, quivering like the last note of a haunting song on the edge of the blade that Karasu held – this feeling set Hinata's blood rushing through her veins in a tumultuous flood of anticipation. How long has it been that she had felt this kind of stimulation?

Longer than she could remember. Far too long. This game; she wanted to play.

"You've improved a lot since then." Her sneer was condescending, like bait dangling mockingly out of reach. Kankorou was all too happy to bite.

He slashed out, but all his blades caught thin air. Hinata gathered herself at the other side of the courtyard with a flutter of her yukata sleeves. She brushed a stray hair away from the brand emblazoned on her pale brow.

"So slow, little puppeteer." She wanted a proper fight, where she can feel the katana's edge pressed against her jugular, where every move was caught in a fight for her life. Something, anything…to remind her of what she couldn't remember.

_Fight me_.

Another puppet – Kuroari - burst out of the ground, attempting to encase her in the chest cavity. Hinata twisted out of the way at the last moment and flung herself around the puppet out of Kankorou's range of sight. The millisecond's worth of delay gave her enough time to activate a seal. Her hands flashed purple. The ground next to Kuroari exploded in a small column of dust.

Hinata's other hand rested on Kuroari.

The puppeteer stilled, narrowed eyes trained on the violent color of her hands. If he had ever read a bingo book in the past few years, Kankorou would know exactly what would happen to his beloved puppet if he pushed her further. It was a sacrifice he was willing to make had it been a true life and death battle, but this was just a petty tussle.

"Again," he groused with a sigh as he retracted Kuroari, "what do you want?"

They both knew she was tied to Konoha, which rendered her incapable of anything particularly harmful. Nonetheless, he still eyed her warily as she rose from her ready stance.

"Information."

"Oh yeah, your memory was erased by Itachi, wasn't," Kankorou mentioned as if it just occurred to him. Hinata inwardly rolled her eyes. That very thought in his head had probably been the only reason he hadn't engaged in a full-out fight to sever her head from her neck.

"Yes, you heard correctly, Puppeteer."

"Why would I give that to you?"

Hinata shrugged.

"I'm not sure – it really depends on how much honor you hold for yourself."

"We're not samurai."

"Nonetheless, we live by a code the governs our every movement." Hinata kept her hands in the open, away from any suspicious movement.

"Meaning…"

"I believe you owe me a favor."

"A favor?! After all you've done?!" He was too curious to be enraged at the audacity of her words. Good, because even Hinata wasn't sure on the veracity of them.

"Indeed…one that you should be all too eager to pay back…" Hinata look at the sun, shielding her eyes in a very nonchalant way. "Oh my, it's getting late – almost time for my shift. We can negotiate this little matter some other time."

"Wait—"

She disappeared from the courtyard, too abruptly for the puppeteer to follow. He cursed liberally, well aware of the fact that she had won this round, and exited the area.

Hinata waited until he was well out of earshot before stepping back into the practice field. Her heart was in her throat, pounding with an unfamiliar rhythm that threatened to accomplish what the puppeteer could not.

_What was that_?

She had deviated entirely from her original plan: confront Kankorou, get the answer out of him, and then leave. But this sly game of bait and hook? Some other Hinata simply took over her body and directed every move like a grand shogi master. Even Kankorou knew he had been played well, for his interest was undeniably ensnared. It had been…enjoyable, given the still giddy feel in her mind.

Maybe…

Hinata shook her head. Regardless of her own strange musings, her sole goal this time was information, and only information. As knowing is so often likened to light, the darkness was getting asphyxiating. She wanted to know, even it if did entail a few dirty tricks on her part.

Knowledge, after all, is worth more than a ninja's life.

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Hinata woke early the next day, rising even before the first rosy hues of sunrise touched the horizon. The dreams had returned last night, leaving her just as exhausted as before she went to bed. Giving up sleep as a lost clause, she quietly disentangled herself from her sheets and slipped out on to the Kazekage's roof. The cool desert air was refreshing against her face, and she watched the slow play of colors welcoming the arrival of dawn.

There was something strangely familiar in this small action, and Hinata kept trying to turn to her side as if someone would be right beside her, but she didn't even bother to try to decipher what her broken brain was trying to tell her. Instead, she simply filed this incidence with the hundreds more she'd encountered since _that _incident. In trying to forget the worries of the present, Hinata was pleasantly surprised to find her eyelids drooping to the pull of a more restful sleep. The sandstone of the roof was still warm and she couldn't help but fall into a light doze.

(AN: flashback)

"Che, newbie, you won't be much use if you keep sleeping, un."

Hinata jerked away, sheepishly brushing the sleep away from her eyes.

"Sorry, Deidara-san. It's just been a long night, since I just returned from another mission." The distinct bite in her voice rolled off the blonde like oil over water. Deidara simply offered her a glare from where he sat in front of her on his flying bird.

"You've been with Akatsuki for over year. By now, anyone else would have learned to adapt, un."

"Sorry, Deidara-san," Hinata gritted out quietly. Deidara didn't not make it a secret that he disliked Itachi, nor did he try to hide the fact that his dislike translated directly to Hinata herself. Unfortunately, Hinata couldn't do much outside of ignoring Deidara's frequent, cutting remarks. Since her own position in the Akatsuki was still shaky, He had pinned her with a direct order to avoid any confrontation within her temporary team. This was her first mission away from her normal partnership with Itachi and Kisame; her sealing abilities would be backup in case there was any trouble restraining Gaara no Sabaku. This particular mission would also be the first time she could demonstrate her usefulness in extracting the tailed demons.

Therefore, failure was not a possibility she could entertain.

"You can get off now, un. I only let you sleep because Sasori-no-danna said you won't be able to keep up otherwise, un."

Before Hinata could respond, the clay bird's tail bucked violently and she was thrown off the airborne transport. She landed on her rear with a less-than-graceful squeak.

"Don't fall behind – we won't wait for you," Sasori groused without a backward glance. Hinata scrambled to her feet and set herself a few paces behind the hulk of Sasori's favorite puppet.

"I won't," she ground out as she watched Deidara put away his clay bird in favor of preserving chakra. How she wanted to show Deidara just how much of a "bang" her own art was! But He had also coached her specifically on that – never to reveal the full extent of her abilities until they were needed. So Hinata simply clenched her fists and bore the snide comments.

It was a long walk to Suna, and for all his impatience, Sasori kept the team going at the slow pace of his puppet. Hinata quite nearly cried in joy to see the staggered outline of the Suna Hidden Village.

Yet for all her relief, she was quick to notice the distinct lack of guards along the tiered layers of Suna's outer wall. This anomaly was quickly explained when the trio entered the cavernous fault between the enormous slabs of sandstone. A lone shinobi stood waiting for them on a carpet of dead comrades, a blank look in his eyes.

"Well done…you remembered me?" rasped Sasori. The shinobi fell to his knees in servitude.

"Alright. If you'd forgotten, I would have had to use my jutsu…" Hinata shuddered. Such scary jutsus in the Akatsuki – she doubted she could ever be comfortable with some of the _talents_ her comrades had.

Deidara seemed to realize Hinata's comfort, given his wide grin while forming a clay bird from the mouth on his right hand. After spitting the bird out, the tongue licked its lips wickedly as the mouth gaped in a strange parody of laughter.

"Sasori-dana, your husband should watch, too," Deidara declared teasingly. "We're attack from above."

"I can't wait," muttered Sasori. The clay bird expanded to an enormous size, and with Deidara standing on its back, took to the air with a gust of wind that almost knocked Hinata off her feet.

"How is this for artistic modeling, un?" Deidara laughed his shoulder before leaving hearing range. Hinata settled with grinding her teeth quietly behind the white stripes of her hat as she watched him fly off.

"Remember," she whispered to herself, repeating the words He told her. "Sasori and Deidara share a common mission, and it is the results laid before Pein that matter. The means for the result are nothing."

"The means for the result are nothing," Hinata reiterated. Her eyes followed the flight of Deidara's enormous bird. It was easier to root for him when he was so far away. He had found the Kazekage – more correctly, Gaara no Sabaku found him, and he seemed to be struggling to evade the terrifying claws of sand at the Ichibi-vessel's command. Hinata almost gasped when Gaara's Sand Coffin obliterated Deidara's arm.

"He's taking too long," Sasori grumbled, eyes narrowed in annoyance as he watched Deidara draw back. As if Deidara had heard him, the blond brought out a large white thing and dropped it to the Suna village below. Hinata followed the bomb's descent with growing horror. That thing was getting even bigger than Deidara's flying bird!

Brief panic gripped her chest and Hinata wanted to scream out "Hurry, Gaara!" All of Suna would be leveled with that thing. Even though Sand had betrayed Konoha, she had come to care about the Sand team that she had competed against in the Chuunin exams. For them to perish like this without even a fighting chance would be…too cruel.

The explosion rocked the very earth beneath her. When Hinata looked back up to the sky, she saw a tsunami of sand frozen in one wave over Suna. Gaara had caught the explosion. Seconds later, another explosion shook Gaara's sphere of sand. Hinata watched with dawning awareness of what had happened.

Gaara had been captured.

Deidara had won.

Suna was safe.

It was the best result she could have hoped for. Hinata felt a slight curl gratitude towards Deidara as he brought his clay owl to a rest beside Sasori.

"You're late. I said not to keep me waiting," Sasori scolded. Deidara was in high spirits despite his ruined arm. He didn't even make a snarky comment towards Hinata's uselessless.

"It's okay. This guy was strong, un."

"That's why I said to be better prepared." Sasori snapped back. But he seemed pleased given how he said nothing more on the subject.

"Good job, Deidara-san," Hinata said quietly as they filed out the door, picking their way among the corpses strewn about. She meant it too. Deidara simply shrugged.

"The hardest part was to not kill—"

"Wait!"

The three turned to see a dark-hooded figure behind them.

"Return Gaara to me!" Kankorou demanded, his face dark with determination. Sasori shuffled his gears with great annoyance.

"Deidara, Hinata, go on ahead."

"But aren't they both…?" Hinata asked. Deidara raised an eyebrow when Kankorou summoned three puppets.

"This is going to interesting, un. You can stay if you want to see how a real puppet master works, un." Deidara sashayed off in his usual self-assured way that Hinata found so infuriating. But this time, she only found it worrying.

"Since I dislike waiting, or making people wait…I make this quick." Sasori declared, eyes intent on his challenger.

And her worries weren't unfounded. Sasori went on to trounce Kankorou within minutes.

"Your puppet's whole poison preparation mechanism is worthy of praise. Haha, you have a strange look on your face…why were your preparations know? It's because the one that created your puppets was none other than me!" Sasori seemed too smug, even for his usual grumpy self. Hinata stood to the side, suddenly feeling very sympathetic towards the prostate form on the ground. She had known that position once, that one of hopeless effort only to see everything fall apart.

"A cute youngster like you being my opponent…it was the most fun battle I've had in a while."

Hinata watched in abject fascination as Sasori raised his scorpion tail, poised to kill, just moments after Kankorou figured out just exactly who he had dueled for his life.

"Sasori of the Red Sand," Kankorou growled out hatefully. As a final act of defiance, he sent a puppet's severed arm rushing at Sasori's head. He dodged it easily, though Kankorou managed to rip away a piece of his facemask.

"Very well, if you want to live so badly…" Sasori hissed with surprising generosity. "My poison gives you 3 hours to live. Find a cure then if you will." Sasori turned without another and lumbered away, his metallic tale waving languid behind him.

"I don't like to be kept waiting," he reminded Hinata before leaving her behind, still staring at the broken jounin before her. An almost direct order to do something so Kankorou might have a fighting chance. It was as if Sasori was sentimental over the fact that the boy was also used puppet-jutsu.

"Some act of mercy," Kankorou muttered to himself. Hinata was so quiet that the puppeteer had forgotten she was still there. He tried to pull himself up on his elbows.

"Please don't do that," she told him as she kneeled down beside him. Kankorou spasmed in surprise, and his numbing arms collapsed under him, earning him a faceful of sand.

"Moving will only accelerate the effects of Sasori-sama's poison," Hinata explained softly as he coughed out the sand from his lungs. Kankorou snorted and managed to turn his face to the side so he could breath proper air. It didn't escape her that he purposely turned his face away from her.

"Two hours and 50 minutes is no different from three hours. Thanks for your kind concern, but how I die is my business."

"Unfortunately for you, when you die is now my business."

His hood had fallen away in the struggle, revealing a head of spiky blond hair. Hinata felt a sudden wave of homesickness hit her in the gut. Well, not so much homesickness, as Naruto-sickness. With his tough persistent attitude and fierce loyalty, Kankorou reminded her painfully of her longtime crush. Looking only at the back of his head, she could almost imagine it was Naruto there.

Gently, she ran her fingers over the tips of his hair. The jounin jerked, but was too weak to move away from her hand.

"You know," Hinata whispered sadly, "I loved someone very similar to you."

"I'm dying here, please go away…" After a pause of thought, the jounin made sure to add, "And please don't do anything creepy with my corpse." Her fist landed lightly on his head.

"Silly, I'm trying to help you." For all his macho pretendings, Kankorou was nonetheless human, and the need to survive burned bright in his instincts. He turned to face Hinata.

"You? Why?"

"I already told you why," she muttered briskly. She took his reaction to be a consensus for what she was about to do and promptly began to strip him of his clothes.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm a seal-specialist. Therefore, to help you, I need to draw seals. Since these seals need to affect your body, they need to drawn on your body," Hinata explained matter-of-factly, blatantly ignoring the fact that it was also enormously amusing to have a grown man squawking like Kankorou was. Not only did she want Kankorou to live, this was the first time she was presented such a puzzle. Sasori's poison was difficult to target specifically in the body since it bound to chakra instead of any particular organ, which was what made it so hard to treat. She couldn't directly pull out the poison, since the backlash of the process could very well kill Kankorou. Complete detoxification would require someone personally pulling out the poison bit by bit, and that required time that Hinata didn't have.

"The best I can do for you at this point is simply slow down the poison," Hinata told Kankorou as she drew a long sequence down his arm and connected it to the circle of ink and blood around him. "I'd say you'll have 3 days, which might give you time to find a medic that can break Sasori-san's poison." She stopped talking as the puppeteer drifted in and out of consciousness.

"What's going to happen to my brother?" he slurred out. Despite the powerful effects of the drugs, his eyes bore into hers with impressive intensity.

"I can't tell you."

"Will he…return?"

"I don't know."

"Please…try to take care of him…he's the only little brother I have…"

Hinata watched as his eyelids fell prey to the drug coursing through his veins.

"I'll try," she promised. That was what she was here for, as the one to actually guide the process of the extraction of the Ichibi.

"I'll….I will…" she said softly. Looking at Kankorou, it finally hit her a second time how much she missed Naruto. One day, he will go through the same extraction that Gaara is about to experience, and…

She couldn't fail.

Gaara cannot die, if she was to have any hope for the future.

Hinata quickly finished her seals and sent out a flare to draw the village attention before darting away to catch up with Sasori and Deidara.

"I promise, Kankorou, I will. I promise," Hinata whispered.

(AN: Flashback end)

A shifting noise replied, and she came to sudden chilling awareness that she sitting against the warm sand of a building, not speeding across the desert.

Hinata's eyes snapped open to meet pale green ones, lined in black. Gaara no Sabaku, Kazkage, looked down at her, a wrinkle of a confusion between his brows.

"I promise, Kankorou, I will?" he repeated in deadpan.

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AN: Kankorou is blonde in the manga. I take him to be blonde since the mangaka doesn't actually color in his hair

On another note...

OMG. I wrote this thing in Online Layout in Word, and it kept telling me it was only 5 pages, so I kept writing and writing because posting only 5 pages after such a long delay was…well, mean and unfair.

…then I converted it to Page Layout. And it was whopping 12 pages…..oops?

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the random sprinklings of crack. Eventually…eventually, I will find my way to the end of the story. Until then, I guess you're all in for a fun adventure. I'm guessing around 3 more chapters.


	18. SCROLL 18: Limitation

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Come Full Circle

By Airyo

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Scroll 18: Limitation

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"Kazekage-sama," Hinata acknowledged with a bow after she scrambled to her feet, face burning with the realization that the Kazekage himself had caught her muttering. And about his brother no less.

"Why do you talk about my brother?" he asked, pale green eyes targeting her with unnerving focus. Over the years, Gaara had mellowed out compared to how he once was, but there was still a marked intensity about him that unsettled people, even without the presence of the Ichibi. Hinata had to make a conscious decision not to fidget like a little kid caught red-handed. This was a stellar chance to draw some information from the Kazekage himself.

"Kazekage-sama, you must know of my amnesia," Hinata explained, keeping her eyes away from his unblinking stare. "Sometimes, when surrounded by once familiar things, I get flashbacks related to them."

"And what were you remembering?" There was chill to his voice that set warning bells clanging about in her brain. Of course, the Kazekage wouldn't remember his rather violent kidnapping in a favorable light. Not when he was speaking to one of the very ninja that helped execute his near-death. Any slight untruth would be unwise at this point.

"I believe it was the day of your kidnapping, Kazekage-sama. I was assigned as backup and watched at the entranceway there with Sasori of the Red Sand. After your capture, your brother Kankorou-san confronted us and demanded the return of his brother. He fought Sasori, but was severely poisoned. Sasori spared him, perhaps because he was also a puppeteer like Kankorou, and told him he had 3 hours to li–"

"3 hours?" The Kazekage was quick to pick out the discrepancy in her facts.

"Yes, 3 hours," Hinata reiterated in a low voice. She gathered the courage to raise her eyes and meet Gaara's frown.

"Sasori indirectly ordered me stay behind and improve Kankorou's chances of survival – which was exactly what I did."

Every word was the absolute and complete truth. The Kazekage would not fault that. Gaara simply continued watching her, with a heavy sort of silence. Hinata took the cue to expound.

"My abilities lie heavily in seals, so I think I slowed the poison's work through his system since it bonded to chakra instead of flesh."

"You think?"

"If the poison had bonded to flesh, I doubt I could have slowed the progress of the poison so effectively that Kankorou could be saved." Hinata had nothing more to say on that matter. There was a long pause as Gaara processed this information she revealed to him.

"And what did you promise to Kankorou in this memory?" It had been too much to hope for him to forget such a line.

"That…I would take care of you for him."

"Take…care of me?" The incredulous expression was a strange on his normally neutral face, as if the expression itself sat away from his features like an odd mask. "And just how did you think to accomplish that?!"

"Frankly, Kazekage-sama, I'm not sure myself. I don't have my complete memories, but from what I gather, I 'took care' of you by ensuring that your body wasn't completely obliterated during the extraction ceremony of the Ichibi."

"I _died_, Hyuuga-san," he suddenly snarled, teeth bared in an ugly display of remembered fear. "I assure you it was not a pleasant experience. You did a damn good job of 'taking care of me'."

It took effort for Hinata to keep her composure from crumbling when faced with the direct result of her failures, even when she couldn't remember them. This self-loathing, tucked deep in some crevice simply waiting to be unburied, had not faded with time nor memory. Apparently, Gaara's rage towards the Akatsuki hadn't faded either, though he did an excellent job of pushing it aside. She shrunk back from the angular form of the Kazekage.

"I'm…sorry. Your death was indeed my fault. Had I prepared properly, you wouldn't have died…probably wouldn't have even had any memory of the ceremony." Just as abruptly as his original outburst, Gaara had refolded all his heavy swaths of laden memories behind a neutral mask befitting of a statue. Only suspicion tightened his features slightly.

"Just how much do you remember, little Akatsuki?"

"Not very much at all," Hinata confirmed.

"Then you are here to remember," he stated. It wasn't a question, not that Hinata could have contested the truth of his words. Slowly, she nodded. Gaara perused her carefully.

"Find what memory you can here, but remember your boundaries. The only reason I even considered allowing you within our walls is because I trust Uzumaki Naruto. For some reason, Konoha seems to find you useful." He stepped in close, and Hinata could hear the irritated rasp of sand in his gourd, much like the sibilant rattle of a rattlesnake about to strike.

"You are watched very closely, Chitsuki-hime of the Akatsuki," he hissed in her ear. "Even one hair out of line and I will not be merciful. Suna has no reason to be merciful to your kind."

It was a classic intimidation tactic, classic and dead effective. Hinata felt the chill running up and down her spine. All she could muster was a clumsy nod.

His usual bland face back in place, Gaara nodded tersely in return before disappearing in a swirl of sand.

Only when she was absolutely sure that he was gone, Hinata drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She ran a quick mental check-list, forcibly relaxing several muscle groups she didn't even realize were tensed to near cramps.

"I'll give you guys this much – your Kazekage is one scary sonuvabitch."

Hinata pretended that she didn't notice the waves of smugness emanating from behind her as she climbed back down into her room.

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After such a charged meeting with the Kazekage himself, the official conference itself between Konoha and Suna was downright anticlimactic. Shikamaru listed the updates between the villages in a monotonic voice that even the Frog had a hard time resisting the soporific effects of the shadow-ninja's tone.

The Eagle simply tuned him out, casting a generic scan of her senses over the area. Relations between Suna and Konoha were steady, almost friendly, thanks to the presence of one Uzumaki Naruto. Gaara no Sabaku had nothing but the utmost respect for the goofball, so any sort of meeting with the two of them together usually produced favorable results.

Nonetheless, the Eagle thought with a frown behind her mask, there was really no need for Naruto to be here today. She had only been listening halfheartedly, but Shikamaru was simply going over some renewal terms in contract that both villages already agreed to wholeheartedly. There wasn't a need for such a show of manpower, especially, herself, given her past alliances with the very organization that killed their Kazekage.

What was Tsunade up to?

Her thoughts drew back to the situation involved Kisame's betrayal. It was embarrassing, really, that she could have missed such a huge agenda of her teammate. But it followed from his words that Itachi was also in on the scheme.

For some reason, her chest felt tight at the thought of her other Akatsuki teammate. She ignored it. She did not want to think on her former teammates, not when the facts pointed her to the conclusion that the two of them had both betrayed her utterly. She had trusted them, given her current state of self-induced amnesia. Essentially, she had laid her very soul in their hands and they discarded it as a mere pawn among pawns. This realization of her worthlessness to them was a bitter pill to swallow.

"Eagle-chan!"

She gripped the smooth fabric of her uniform. But wasn't the very role of ninja a pawn for those in the seats of power? Granted, some ninja were more important to the hidden village than others due to their skill level, but nonetheless, it boiled down to the harsh fact that they were all game pieces in some great game of strategy. She had long ago accepted her position as such an object, or so she thought, but the notion of playing a mere knight to her teammates still bothered her. She couldn't have possibly stayed with the Akatsuki for so long merely because they commanded her to. Eagle believed in herself more than that, at the very least. More sentimental factors had tied her to Akatsuki, or even originally Konoha, be it duty, loyalty, or even the ceaseless drive to change herself.

Strangely enough, this thought soothed her battered ego. She had used them, too. Maybe it was to gain meaning, or to accomplish her original goal of "saving Naruto", or even for a simple breath of new air. For whatever purpose, at the very least, she wasn't the disposable damsel waiting in some forsaken tower.

"Eagle-chan!!"

The Frog's strident whispers for her attention finally processed through her musings, and Eagle snapped her focus back to her teammate.

"I'm bored~" he sighed, purposely drawing out his words like an Academy student. Eagle rolled her eyes, even though she had to smile in gratitude. She had been dangerously unfocused, and the Frog, ever the watchful caretaker, reminded her of her precarious position in a way that didn't involved her dignity.

Even to this day, Eagle could still be surprised by just how capable the Frog really was, despite all his silliness.

"Thank you," she whispered back. The Frog quirked his head, faking a childish ignorance of her meaning. Through the eyeholes, she could see his eyes twinkling with a steadfast blue shadowed azure by the mask. He was leaning against the wall in an almost comical way, and Eagle had inwardly laugh at that. He really was too cute at times.

Without the original emotional hurt backing her conviction to stop loving Naruto, it was harder to not dream of a different set of circumstances. What if she hadn't left Konoha? What if she hadn't been sealed to Naruto like a prisoner? What if she had been stronger? What if…she hadn't been poisoned by the ninja politics that every hidden village pretended not to drown in? What if, what if..? All these questions knocked at the corner of her thoughts, waiting for a single moment of weakness in the faith she had for herself. Briefly, she wished things could have happened differently, because then, the possibilities…

She shook her head, not daring to think more of it.

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The conference ended early after, a good while before schedule. Since the group was set to leave tomorrow, and with the bodyguard mission essentially over (since according to Shikamaru, he was quite capable of "babysitting my own ass"), ANBU Team 7 was left with a day off to do as they please. Hinata immediately headed for one of the training areas located at the outskirts of Sunagakure that was open to visiting ninja. She had been sure to sign her name on the training area log, as well as mention to several passerby ninja her intention to train. That should be enough of a trail for Kankuro to find her.

Hinata leaped onto top off one of the broken boulders scattered over Training Field 67. The area was pitted with potholes and hidden sinkholes, forming an obstacle course that spelled broken ankles if not broken necks. The sun was unhindered by clouds and beat mercilessly on every dusty surface. She could feel the rising heat through the soles of her sandals. This was a place that nurtured efficient ninja, for the overwhelming heat would not be kind to those who drew out their fights.

A long moment of wanderlust overtook her being. How lovely it would be to travel and train at all sort of different places! Snowy mountains, raging rivers, dark forests, humid swamps; how will her body hold up to these challenges? She could learn new skills she can't even imagine, stretching her abilities to limits and -- reality quickly brought her crashing down from her daydream of traveling far away from her present. The seal emblazoned across her forehead tied her to Naruto and Konoha. She had been trapped as a game piece by the ones she trusted the most. Hinata swallowed hard. It was time, she supposed, to accept her unwanted role and play it to the end, and hope for an okay ending.

But was this it? Was it all there was to this? A game? Was there really nothing else?

It seemed so damn stupid to run circles on a game board…Hinata bit her lip. A life of boundaries and logic made it difficult to think in a direction away from those trails worn out by others before her. Even her stint with the Akatsuki had been a dance among carefully unspoken rules and hierarchies. Her heart pounded too hard in her ears, scattering the small clumps of thought in her mind.

It was suddenly hard to stand still. She vaulted into the air, spinning, as if she could escape the columns of gauzy heat that sought to catch her. The sun spilled across her body, reaching for her eyes. Hinata squeezed them shut, and landed without so much a sound. Nonetheless, the dust shifted slightly beneath her feet, too sly and sensitive to be treated like grass. In a real mission, where the split-second difference determined life or death, she would have met her death. She needed more training – training in places that pushed her further than she could go now.

Training away from here. Anywhere but here.

She darted between the boulders, pushing herself as quickly as she could go, evading the lethal strikes of an imaginary pursuer. The sliding dust reduced her mobility, and Hinata found herself using much more chakra to perform her usual twists and turns than back in Konoha. She really needed to break away from everything, something inside of her whispered. It was too asphyxiating to stay in their clutches. Too exhausting to play this game of backstabbing behind backs.

As if her very thought drained her of her energy, Hinata halted to a panting stop. The few moments of silence from her thoughts focused her enough to realize that someone familiar was within the range of her senses. He was barely registering, just at the edge of the training field behind her.

"I've been waiting," she called out loud. Kankuro stepped down the road in front of her, surprised by the fact that she had sensed him from so far away. Hinata jumped, but said nothing. The aura behind her had disappeared, yet she still got the feeling that he was there. This visitor knew her limits well, and that fact frightened her.

"I heard you regained some of your memories," Kankuro hinted. Hinata pushed the uneasiness to the backlogs of her attention.

"Kazekage-sama spoke to you," she told him. "And yes, I remembered some of the events surrounding his capture."

"Then you don't need me here." There was a question in his words.

"Yes, actually, I do." Hinata turned to him with a small smile. "I have a great need for your help."

Kankuro drew away from her, eyes small and suspicious.

"Do not forget that you owe me a life debt."

"It was Sasori that ordered you to help me."

"It was I that chose to follow that order."

Kankuro held silent. Hinata inwardly slumped in relief. She had been banking on Kankuro's moral values according to a mere memory that just as well could be a dream, but his response now was more than favorable.

"Originally," Hinata admitted, "I had a different purpose for approaching you. But after I remembered what I came here to remember on my own, it really would be a shame to leave such connections loose and ill-used."

Kankuro gave her a resigned stare and Hinata shrugged.

"It's only a small favor that I just thought of, one that affects me and very little else if you manage to succeed. And it should be a very easy thing for you given your abilities. I promise."

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The same mysterious aura that Hinata had sensed on Training Field 67 did not reappear until the group had crossed the border between Wind Country and Fire Country. The Eagle sped up as they vaulted through the trees, breaking the set formation.

"_Intruder_," she signed to the Cat in the ANBU hand code. The captain stopped the team with a wave of his hand. She pointed behind them, where the sparse foliage of the treeline just began to thicken. The Cat motioned to Eagle, and she activated her rarely-used Byakugan.

The Eagle stiffened in shock. This tail knew of her Byakugan, and knew her particular Byakugan well, given how he managed to move just out of the range of clear sight.

"_He knows my Byakugan's limits,_" Eagle signed nervously. Cat muttered something that resembled a curse. He understood the implications – this intruder was affiliated with the Akatsuki, because that was the only way such a person would be able to know her abilities so well. He gestured a formation that the team quickly condensed into. Instead of being dispersed throughout the trees as usual, they now moved in a tight unit along the branches with urgent speed. Now, an ambush from any angle would meet rigid defense.

However, their stalker was too skilled to be thrown off by such a tactic, and actually maneuvered himself directly in front of their path. They rapidly became cognizant of the fact that they couldn't outrun him.

The Cat readied his katana, a clear cue for the rest of the team to prepare for confrontation.

Their group slid to halt in a small clearing. Across the area, a dark figure waiting for them. Now that all opponents were well aware of the others' presence, their stalker made no effort to hide his aura.

"Itachi," the Cat snarled.

Hinata mouthed the name. For some reason, it was hard to breathe when she looked at this stranger, although she knew very well who he was.

Uchiha Itachi.

Her other partner, and as far as Konoha knew, the one that had controlled her for five years. But, he didn't match the profiles she had sifted through back in the Leaf. This Itachi had hair touched with orange, and unsettling ringed Sharingan. The crazed, malicious smile with too many teeth also seemed disjoint from the stony person described in the reports.

"Long time, no see, Hina-chan," Itachi purred. He blurred away, and before any of them could register his movement, he had reappeared in front the Eagle.

"Miss me?" He stroked her mask, and then ripped it off with a violent move of his arm. It fell to the ground in pieces.

"Rasengan!" The Frog hurtled past Itachi. The elder Uchiha blurred back behind Hinata, laying an arm across her shoulders possessively.

"Who are you?" she asked, pained. She couldn't remember any but a tugging feeling in her heart, yet there was an awful sense of wrongness about him. It scared her more than the fingers that lingered to closely to her jugular. This…this thing – it wasn't Itachi. It couldn't be.

"The one you belong to." He reached around her for her forehead, tracing the seal seared the pale canvas of skin. He leaned close to her face. "I've come back for what's mine."

"No…" she murmured. There was no flood of familiarity as when she usually met someone she once knew. This creature was a perfect stranger, and a mockery of Itachi. Instinctively, she drew away from him. But a grip of iron crushed her windpipe, pushing her back against Itachi's solid chest, halting her escape.

"Where do you think you're going, Hina-chan?"

"Don't call me that," she choked out, with far more rage than she thought she had. Hinata clawed at his hands, and when he didn't release her, she activated a seal on his upper arm.

"Let go, or the arm goes," she hissed out.

"Get away from her."

Itachi turned and smirked at the Frog, neglecting to remove his hand from Hinata's throat.

"Jealous, Naruto-kun? Don't worry. She doesn't seem to like me very much right now. But that doesn't mean you can have her either."

With a snarl, the Frog lunged forward to strike him. The elder Uchiha tightened his grip, completely cutting off her air source.

"Another step and your precious Chitsuki-hime looses her head." Her teammates halted in their steps, staring in horror at Hinata's struggle to gain air. She made the sign for her seal to explode, but only a flicker of blueish chakra crackled around Itachi's elbow.

"Surprised? What a poor ninja I would be if I couldn't even pick up the very basics of your favorite techniques."

Black edged Hinata's vision. When the world stopped swimming before her eyes, she realized that Itachi had moved across the clearing, keeping the rest of Team 7 and Shikamaru far away from him. She was helpless against him, and she trembled in his grasp.

"Why?" she managed to gasp out. He paused, then the hand choking her loosened slightly, just enough for her remain conscious. A callused thumb caressed the side of her jaw. Hinata was surprised to realize that Itachi was trembling, too, holding her too tightly in this parody of an embrace.

"Why?" he echoed. "Why…because he cannot get you."

Before Hinata could process what he had told her, the world moved in that sickening way again. When her vision cleared, they were no longer in the clearing.

"Get me?" Hinata prompted quietly. Her heart pounded fervently, straining to bear what little oxygen she could get to her brain. Her body felt too heavy, and the effort of lifting an arm to even try to fight him off seemed to require a Herculean effort.

"Hinata!!!" she heard Sakura scream out somewhere off in the distance.

"Get back here, you bastard!" Naruto roared from somewhere else.

"If he gets you, all is lost," Itachi muttered. With his hand still wrapped menacingly around the front of her neck, he drew her into a tight hug. "I cannot allow –"

Something large slammed into the two of them. Hinata felt the sickening sensation of tearing skin. Itachi had been knocked away. The familiar form of Kisame could be seen fending off the elder Uchiha. Heavenly air rushed into her lungs. Gasping as the black edging of her vision disappeared, Hinata tried to call out, and it was then that the pain registered in her brain. Fiery hurt swathed her neck and she cupped the wounds left by Itachi's fingernails to try to stifle the bleeding.

"Hinata-chan," the Panther muttered to gain her attention. Green chakra enveloped her hands. With a small wrinkle of her brow, she forced the lacerations on Hinata's neck to close. "Don't speak for a little. He really messed up one of your vocal chords. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

Hinata shook her head mutely, her eyes focused entirely on the fight between Kisame and Itachi. The Frog and the Cat had joined sometime. This Itachi's fighting style was different, haphazard even, as if he was trying to listen to someone's instructions and ignore said instructions simultaneously. Only sheer innate skill along allowed for him to hold his own for several minutes before the Cat managed to land a solid blow with his Chidori. The hiss and burn of flesh could be heard in the following silence.

But by the time the Cat had retracted his hand, Itachi had disappeared. None of them could feel his presence anymore. Hinata tried to feebly feel out his aura, but he had long retreated well out of her range as well.

"Dammit dammit DAMMIT!" the Frog cursed, punching a nearby tree with each word. "He wasn't supposed to be caught."

"What was the original plan, then?" Hinata asked hoarsely, unable to speak above a whisper. He whipped around, shoulders stiff with enough tension that even the air around him didn't dare move. Hinata could see him trying not to shoot glances at Sakura or Kisame. He took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled, suddenly very defeated looking.

"Sorry, Hinata-chan, but it's classified."

"Do you really think that's even a remotely sufficient response after all that's happened?" she gritted out. She slowly rose to her feet, still unsteady from blood-loss and lack of air. "Think Naruto-_kun_, about just exactly who's involved in this fiasco!" Hinata snarled out the suffix with sarcasm. Her accusing eyes darted from comrade to comrade, and each of them either looked at her blankly, or averted their gaze.

"Can anybody even think straight anymore?" she snapped. Her throat hurt, like she has had a bad cough for weeks on end, and made her voice too low for her to yell properly. But the silence was loud enough that it cleared the way for her mutilated words.

"What is go—" Her vocal chords gave way, and Hinata only produced an angry hiss of air.

"Hinata…" The Panther began to step forward, concerned, but Hinata shook her head, eyes distrustful of anything they had to say. With her back painfully straight, Hinata marched back to the clearing where her shattered mask was.

She picked up each splintered piece with shaking hands; a part of the beak, a curve of the cheek, a piece of the brow. Looking at the pieces in her hands, Hinata couldn't imagine that this mask had once been in the image of an eagle. The bone-pale fragments looked like nothing of the original – despite her best efforts, Hinata couldn't rearrange them back to the way they were.

Hinata wanted to scream, but even that right had been taken away from her.

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AN: Midterm week again. Don't blame me for darkness. ^_^


	19. SCROLL 19: Spiral

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Come Full Circle

By Airyo

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Scroll 19: Spiral

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Until only recently, Hinata didn't realize that she had lost faith in the system of hidden villages. Secretly, she wondered if the Kyuubi was actually in the right to try to level Konoha to the ground. The system when first envisioned by the first Hokage had been bright and illuminated the future to an almost surreal degree. But to Hinata, the present only showed the remnant shadows of a dream from long ago. It was only natural, she surmised, that no civilization could last forever. Degeneracy was inevitable, especially when it pertained to order that humans imposed on the world.

She had been too idealistic, in trying to force herself to conform to the Hyuuga's standards, Konoha's standards, and the world's standards. Really, it came down to one thing – strength. It was why the Hiashi forced her to train until her blood speckled the ground. It was why Konoha kept Naruto, yet hated him for it. It was why Konoha kept her, the infamous Chitsuki-hime, even after she had essentially plotted the village's ultimate destruction and closed the Leaf from her heart. It was why even the closest of the friends had to keep secrets from each other.

It was why she was standing here, unable to take another step forward because of a seal on her brow.

Stretching the limits of her imprisoning seal hurt. Pain like blunt knives quartering her flesh lanced through her body. Each centimeter she slid away from wherever Naruto was meant an increase in the hurt by a hundred fold. Finally, the agony rendered her legs unusable, and she fell back onto the ground. Even thought tears trickled from her eyes as her nerves screamed from the torture, Hinata smiled widely, allowing a half sob, half chuckle to bubble past her lips. She had moved a full half-mile outside the original 3-mile range that her caged-bird seal allowed.

It was working – the seal was weakening.

She had left immediately after picking up the pieces of her mask. She knew her seal wouldn't have let her stray too far from Naruto, but Hinata really didn't want to see any of them right now. Naruto probably guessed as much, because the group stayed well away from Hinata. It was only just now that Naruto stopped, letting Hinata move no further, probably to set up camp for the night. Itachi had done a good number on all of them, and they were close enough to Konoha borders to rest without too many worries. Especially since Itachi himself was now also injured.

Hinata sighed and set up a small sleeping area for herself. She felt utterly isolated, yet something inside her yearned to be even more alone. Alone in the sense that she won't have to answer to anyone but herself.

"Being a hermit at this point sounds wonderfully tempting," she thought to herself in a sad attempt at humor. For one thing, Hinata certainly wouldn't have to worry about any silly power plays between all her colleagues. With a small sigh, she snuggled into her thin sleeping bag and fell into a restless slumber.

Mere hours later, the watery sunlight filtering through the leaves tickled Hinata's eyelids, pulling her back from the darkness. She blinked away the lingering sleep in her eyes and smoothly rolled to her feet. After years of sleeping on the go, Hinata found the hard ground just as comfortable to sleep on as any hotel bed. For one thing, the ground gave her the necessary leverage to flip to her feet instantaneously. The softer beds at the hotels could cost her the split second between driving her palm into an enemy's ribcage and receiving the same courtesy. She deliberately avoided remembering exactly who were her campmates on these excursions.

Hinata mechanically packed away her camp. Within minutes, there was not a trace of the ninja left in the area. She tested the seal tentatively, and was thrilled to find it give several more meters without too much pain. Naruto's group was not on the move yet, so Hinata simply leaped up into the towering trees' canopy above. The lonely trill of a hidden bird echoed faintly among the leaves. It was peaceful here, far away from people. She pressed her back against the warm bark of the tree, briefly wishing that she could sink into the tree and fall into a deep sleep. The slight change of perspective allowed Hinata to fall into a light doze.

When the small presence in her mind tugged slightly, letting Hinata know that the rest of the ambassador escort team was again on the move, a quick glance at the high position of the sun told her that it was already near noon. Briefly, she considered resisting to see how long she could fight the pain. As if guessing her intention, Naruto tugged more insistently than before. Logically, it was better to bide her time, so Hinata followed the tension of her leash and headed towards Konoha.

The Frog waiting for her at the gate.

"We're meeting at Tsunade-baba's for a mission report at two. But before that, I'm taking you to get patched up at the hospital - you look like you got mauled by a werewolf."Neither of them mentioned to exactly who that 'werewolf' was. Mentally wincing at the sight she must present, Hinata simply acquiesced and allowed Naruto to drag her to the hospital. Shizune was ready in one of the examination rooms and she immediately attacked Hinata with a fury of gauze pads soaked with alcohol.

"Ugg!" Hinata only managed before she found herself topless and wounds on fire. Shizune clucked briskly but pressed on relentlessly with her sterilization fervor.

"You should have immediately tended to these as soon as the fight ended, not a full day later! Any longer and you'd have gone septic!" Hinata tuned out the rest of Shizune's chastising, merely nodding and 'hm'ing at the right times so the medic nin could get her disapproval out of her system. Gangrene was the least of her worries. Truthfully, after her night by herself, Hinata knew that she would easily give an arm or a leg or even both to leave this cage behind.

By now, there was a certain calm in her center that she hadn't found in a long, long while. Objectively, her situation had not changed the slightest – she only had her new scars to show for it. But Hinata could breath easier, since she had reached the encompassing decision of what she wanted of in her future outside of mere survival. She only had to silently wait for the chance.

All else, really, was negligible.

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She faced the mirror in her room, slowly unraveling the bandages from around her neck. The ghastly scars trailed along the thin column of her neck like jagged lightening, shocking and hauntingly out of place even three weeks down the road. Sakura had done a good job given her hasty healing on the battlefield. But Shizune had apparently gotten to Hinata too late to save her vocal chords, and she was left with a semblance of a whisper for her voice. Hinata was fine with that diagnosis. Her vocal chords were perfectly healed, but the lack of obligation to communicate beyond a few hand signals was a relief. Hinata felt little need to speak with her team beyond the bare necessities. Tsunade still forbade the rest of team 7 to reveal the deal that had occurred behind Hinata's back, although it was quite obvious given the new presence of one Hoshigaki Kisame in the fine village of Konoha.

Hinata was quite sure of the pieces of her personal puzzle: Itachi and Kisame had made a deal with the Godaime. Konoha gets the Chitsuki-hime, and in return, they get protection from the insidious plan of their crazed leader. Too bad Itachi couldn't get out in time, and got taken in by some sort of technique.

Serves him right.

Hinata shook her head in disgust and pulled on her ANBU uniform. The sleek material slid softly over the deadened nerves of her neck. With a little work, any medic nin could remove these scars, but somehow, Hinata felt it was fitting that she kept these reminders. A reminder of the games they played with her. Everyone thought she was slowly sinking into a deep depression, what with her continual detachment from the very people she had finally started to bond with. Her former teammates from Team 8 tried to meet with her more often, attempting to fill at least some of her time with the joy of companionship. Hinata couldn't feel more than stilted warmth, dampened by the stark truth of how everyone she's ever trusted had backstabbed her. No, it wasn't depression. If anything else, Hinata nursed and protected this festering burn inside her, pushing her forward each new day.

She fluidly finished pulling on the rest of her outfit.

The mask was last to go on. Eagle slipped out the door soundlessly.

The rest of her team slept on peacefully.

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"Where are you going?"

Eagle turned to regard the small shadow perched on the roof.

"Were you waiting for me?" she asked incredulously. Trust her little sister to catch her off guard, even now.

Hanabi chuckled humorlessly as she landed on the ground. There was still a small pat of sound of her feet hitting the ground, but her movements were smooth as any jounin's.

"It's not hard to guess what you're planning on doing," Hanabi admitted as she slid to the ANBU's side. Eagle blinked.

"And what would that be?" she prompted. Her sister rolled her eyes – one of the first true signs of the young teenager she was.

"You're going to confront that Itachi guy. Leave with him, or kill. I'm not actually sure." The Eagle paused, then removed her mask. She wasn't sure either. There was just this drive to see him again, to affirm every wrong that she perceived done against her. She needed justification for all this madness.

The tense line of Hanabi's shoulder belied her false nonchalance. The young Hyuuga was nervous, and she positively buzzed with the consequential energy. She licked her lips once before speaking.

"Can you make me a promise before you go?" Hinata pursed her lips. A promise could be a hard thing to keep.

"Train me," Hanabi offered quietly. "I'll clean your Soft Hand forms in return."

Of all things that Hanabi could have asked for, _this_ was not one of them that Hinata had imagined.

"Why?" Hinata finally allowed hoarsely. Hanabi tried to shrug apathetically, but Hinata could positively feel from the tension thrumming over her skin.

"The Soft Hand…" Hanabi gritted her teeth, then everything burst out of her like water from a crumbling dam. "I'm still Genin, Hinata. I'm a genius at the Soft Hand, and I'm a Genin." She spat out the word with a vehemence only someone with Hinata's past could relate to.

"You're a failure at it, and you're ANBU, even one of the most notorious ones of the world. Don't you think something is wrong here?"

Hinata could only feel pity for this broken thing. At least she herself had a goal to live by, but it looked like to her that Hanabi could only feel clumsily about, blinded by the horribly skewed judgment of everyone around her. She wondered how many sleepless nights it took Hanabi to gracefully accept that the style she always knew as invincible wasn't quite so perfect.

"The Soft Hand is old – too old," Hanabi drove on. "It would fall apart with a breath of fresh air. Our skills have dulled and we're stagnating. Everyone else is striving forward and improving their imperfections. What are we doing to our faults?" Hanabi cut off with a bark of a laugh. She answered her own question without allowing Hinata to interrupt.

"We're concentrating them. Purifying them, if you will."

Hanabi's words struck something hidden in Hinata. She's heard these words before, from another mouth but backed with just as much pained experience. Her heart actually hurt at the thought of this person, whomever he was. Impulse seized her tongue before her head could even register.

"Very well," she whispered.

Hinata had never seen Hanabi smile so genuinely.

She felt an urge to send a crooked smile back, but then Hinata had felt his sickening aura within her range of senses. Itachi was but a mile from Konoha tonight. He was getting impatient.

"Meet me tomorrow behind the Hyuuga compound," Hinata told her sister hurriedly. Then she took off, driven by an urgency that no logical part of her could explain.

Hinata forced her legs to move faster, even though all she wanted to turn a complete 180 and run the other direction. The unrest buzzing in her chest wouldn't let her rest otherwise. She briefly touched the scroll of seals she's rewritten attached to her hip. The seals sung under her shaking fingertips, as if whispering encouragement. Hinata pushed forward, clenching her fist.

He wasn't even trying to hide, the bastard. Her chest felt tight at the thought of him and Hinata shook her head to clear it of these thoughts.

Itachi was waiting for her in a barely-there clearing hemmed by three enormous oaks. He stood on the lower branches of one of them, a good 50 feet above the ground. The orange to his hair settled some of the buzzing unrest at the back of her throat.

"Good, Hina-chan, you came." A grotesque smirk stretched his lower jaw. The defense mechanism of apathy touched at the corners of her mind and Hinata embraced that detachment that marked the best shinobi. The buzzing faded from her ears, and now she could pick out the discordant tones the non-Itachi's voice fighting Itachi's own voice.

"So stupid" – this sounded closer to Itachi's own smooth tones, though Hinata had no idea how she knew – "you played perfectly to my bait." A small part of Hinata was disappointed to hear non-Itachi's voice slip back, harshly jamming the elegant intonation of the original.

"You could very well get hurt, little Hina-chan. Did it not occur to you, hm?" She remained silent, allowing the mad hybrid of right and wrongness finish his gloating.

"Are you quite finished, Uchiha?"

Hysterical laughter filled the branches and non-Itachi dropped to the ground without so much of a woosh of displaced air. He kept laughing, mouth held wide even as his eyes remained hard and uncurved with mirth.

"You are such a hoot, Hina-chan. You haven't called me that in ages. What ever happened to 'Itachi'?"

"Names are earned from me, Uchiha," Hinata shot back tersely, reiterating his family name to further make her point.

"Not even a –kun?" This non-Itachi stalked closer, a sly feline edge to his features. Hinata's toes curled in the effort to not give even one step.

"You should be glad I'm even calling you something that can be repeated around children."

Again, that grating, mad laughter clanged about in her ears. Hinata gritted her teeth. She felt distinctly tainted even listening to the sound. Then just as abruptly, the parody of laughter cut off, and non-Itachi tilted his head in a thoughtful expression, listening to some voice that Hinata couldn't detect.

"I'm quite fond of you, y'know. All the others have long succumbed to me for one reason or another. But only I, just me, have fought so long. I should have killed you several minutes ago."

Hinata stared at this creature, frozen. The madness retreated but a little, but the sharp quality of his voice could only be imitated by one person. Of all things, the worst of them all blossomed inside her like a poisonous flower– hope. The possibility of something other than the path she'd accepted for herself, however grim it may be, would be too much to bear.

"Itachi," she hissed, more to remind herself of the danger before her rather than a gasped confession of fondness. She shouldn't be feeling this for a backstabbing missing-nin like this piece of shit. Neither the Itachi of old nor the one who possesses him were her allies. This was the first link of the chain that bound her to the ground. The first step to her freedom.

"Die," she snarled.

A five-point seal was set alight on her hands and she charged for the monster before her.

"Fly home, Hinata," he whispered.

Hinata jerked away her glowing hand. The chakra missed Itachi's face by a millimeter, setting the angles of his face alight.

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Even three years into her partnership with Itachi and Kisame, the overlying pattern of Itachi saving her remained constant. While her combat abilities were nothing to sneeze at, Hinata is, and always will remain, primarily a stealth unit. A seal there, a seal here, and a glorious implosion of chakra when the ninja herself was long gone. However, in a pure battle of strength, she wilted like a flower in the desert.

Getting caught in a melee-type environment with hardly any prepared seals at hand was simply bad fortune. Nonetheless, as Itachi carried her away from the battlefield he'd just laid to the ground in her stead, Hinata berated herself furiously for being weak. Sir's lesson of strength and more strength stuck with her, but even the devout follower of this philosophy had her bad moments. Especially when she'd needed her partner to come save her from a large group of _chuunin_.

How embarrassing.

Hinata laid against Itachi's back, muscles too overspent of chakra to be anything more than a liquid consistency. She weakly shifted so she had more leverage with her good arm around his shoulder and ease the pressure off the broken one. The broken ribs weren't so easy to sooth, nor was the broken leg that threatened to bump into his thigh with every step. His hair tickled her nose, still pungent with the scent of burning enemies. Hinata briefly considered the energy expense to turn her head and the phantom pain also running along her spine at the thought of the movement.

Everything hurt. Sneezing would hurt a hell of a lot more.

"K'same?" she muttered though a swelling lip. The shark man limped alongside Itachi.

"Eh Soupy, need me to put you out of your misery? Me n' Itachi are pretty hungry."

"No," she sighed. Even now, Kisame had to keep that horrid joke going. "Please move 'tachi's hair? Can't sneeze." Itachi immediately stilled and allowed Kisame to remove the hair from Hinata's face.

"Thanks," Hinata slurred, heart warming at how the two hardened missing-nin were so careful with her. They could have just as easily tossed her over one of their shoulders like a sack of radishes. She didn't deserve such care. Itachi shifted and Hinata realized that hot tears of frustration were rolling down her cheeks, soaking the dark fabric of his shirt.

"Go to sleep Hinata," Itachi murmured. "The mission was completed. Worrying now would be excessive and inefficient." She felt rather than heard his words as they vibrated through his back. For the first time in her short life, Hinata couldn't bring herself to feel unwanted.

Itachi always did know the right thing to say.

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"Fly home?" she echoed. His words tugged at some distant wall in her mind.

Then the key phrase registered and pure agony rippled through Hinata's skull. Moments, hours, days passed before Hinata realized that she was lying on the ground, gasping for breath that rushed out of her lungs like a pained growl.

The past five years slammed back into her head like one of Tsunade's punches.

Dammit, that hurt.

Through a haze of pain, she forced her eyes open to stare into dark irises. He stared back unblinkingly. Then, after a bolt of white-hot agony that even manifested as color in her eyes, Hinata gave way to blessed oblivion.

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AN: Short, I know. I had to post something, right. Again, I'm making multiple apologies. I wrote most of it months ago, and then I simply could not finish the chapter. I would liken it to the equivalent of beating my forehead against a tree trunk. Painful and useless. Arg. Finally, I copped out and made Hinata faint. Original, I know. But thank you for still staying with my story even when I gave up on it for a little while. :) Your supportive reviews really have been cranking up my creative juices, even if I haven't been replying. Promise.

I have most of the ending planned out, and it looks it will be an even 20 with an epilogue. Woot!


	20. SCROLL 20: Skyward

Come Full Circle

By Airyo

And I know Hinata's birthday isn't in the fall. Let's just pretend Konoha is in like... Florida.

SCROLL 20

For the first few hazy moments that Hinata was awake, she thought was staring into a mirror. The same pale eyes and dark hair that greeted her every morning perused her carefully. However, Hinata could have sworn her eyes didn't embody the ruin of age prematurely swallowing youth. Then she blinked and everything came back into focus.

"Hanabi," she rasped out. Disuse had left her voice a full octave deeper. The Hyuuga heir twisted her lips and handed her a small cup of water as Hinata sat up. She was in the room she shared with Sakura, with her little sister seated beside her bed.

"I heard fighting," Hanabi finally said, her clipped tones surprising Hinata. "I thought..." She looked down, suddenly shy.

'I thought you left again', Hinata finished for her mentally. The quilted accusation didn't sting, as she still felt that she had every right to try to escape. Hinata felt she should have felt some regret. Instead, all she wanted was for Hanabi to leave. She was suffocating within.

"Then I found you just lying there in the middle of what looked like one of Naruto's Rasengans when he looses control."

Hinata felt her brows furrow as her mind attempted to refit the pieces of what Hanabi was telling her. Fighting? She did not recall ever landing one move. Hinata quickly reassessed her body, only to come up with the same conclusion. There wasn't a single mark on her body to indicate combat with Itachi.

"Was there anyone else?" she asked. Hanabi shook her head, reading the confusion on her face perfectly. Who fought the Non-Itachi?

"I assumed the Uchiha had already left." Hanabi smirked at the shock in Hinata's eyes, since her continued involvement with Uchiha Itachi was S-rank classified information. A smug glint reminiscent of Hanabi's old attitude lit her flat eyes. "One would think the Hyuuga would teach every Byakugan user how to read lips."

Hinata blinked, yet again taken aback by her little sister. She'd thought that the Hyuuga neglected to teach her such an obvious skill simply because they thought her too dumb, not because the idea never occurred to the high-and-mighty elders.

"I can see why you want to improve the Hyuuga." Hinata finally said noncommittedly. The recollection of her worthlessness to the Hyuuga only opened another dusty jar of bitter feelings.

As the curtain of sleepy unawareness was being drawn back, the rush of past memories was beginning to clamor for attention at the back of her mind. Hinata forcefully pushed them back to a corner for when she had to time to properly sort out her thoughts and emotions. She wasn't even sure yet if she should go on a massacre like a certain somebody or simply leave this place.

Or even stay.

With a small sigh, Hinata curled her thin legs and gracefully rose out of bed. A quick glance at the sun told her that it was only dawn. She'll need to attend a quick team meeting with Kakashi and the Godaime, but Hinata doubted that Team 7 would be assigned a new mission, as they'd recently completed a S-rank just a few days ago. The appointment with Jiraiya she always regarded as optional.

"I'm free for today after my meeting with my team. When and where?" she offered slowly

Hanabi followed her out of the room she shared with Sakura.

"I don't have much of team anymore. Anytime you're done with your meeting is acceptable."

"Training area 12 at noon, then?"

"Affirmative."

Her goal accomplished, Hanabi was satisfied enough to leave Hinata alone. She slipped out of the quiet house like a shadow, and Hinata wondered just exactly how Hanabi didn't pass the chuunin exam. Her combat skills more than made up for her lack of leadership skills, unless her teamwork abilities were really that absymal. Out of pure curiosity's sake, Hinata was beginning to look forward to her training session with Hanabi.

Morning light was only beginning to seep through the window panes. She had several hours time before the team meeting with the Hokage - just enough time to train for a while and ease the rising panic that accompanied suddenly regaining several years worth of memories.

Hinata pulled on her ANBU uniform in a daze, nearly forgetting to wear her jounin uniform over it to conceal herself before the meeting. It was like she'd just watched a long movie, so the images in her mind were vivid and fresh. She knew these were her memories, but they only drifted about before her eyes like surreal blotches like when she stared into the sun for too long. Once a part of her was taken away, and now it couldn't quite fit back like it once did. The rest of Hinata had changed too much to allow the old parts to sit comfortably.

She looked up, only to realize that her feet had led her to Training Area 3, the place where Naruto had passed his survival training. As a genin, she had trained there often, fantasizing herself to be soaking up her crush's determination and courage. Now, even being here reminded her of the past year of betrayal and imprisonment. This place of comfort had evolved into her own bitter tombstone.

The former Hyuuga fled the little grassy clearing. She couldn't bear continuing to look at the wooden posts, once marred with the blood and force of her knuckles. They'd replaced them, and now any mark of her here was wiped away like old water.

It hurt.

It seemed that everywhere that she thought she had gained a little bit of hold, they would only come back to prove her wrong. She was that transient, just another tool in Konoha's or Akatsuki's or whomever's toolbox. Usually, being useful was enough. But today, even that thought couldn't buoy her thoughts.

What was the use of memories if they only served to support the same conclusions she'd reached without them? Did she even want her memories back if they only hurt her more?

The swirling motion of a leaf falling to the ground caught her eye, and Hinata paused, almost shocked by rush of newly remembered memories that overtook her self-pity.

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"A game?" Hinata squeaked, staring at the mountain with disbelief. They'd only completed their first group mission, and if her ears were still functioning, Itachi and Kisame already wanted her to hollow out that mountain.

A _mountain, _the kind that was composed of solid rock.

How was that for a sweet sixteen birthday present?

"Think of this task as that, Soupy," Kisame was suggesting. "How long can you go before you die and we get to use your corpse as dinner tonight? Bonus points if you can get halfway through."

Hinata only sighed at his insinuation towards her edibility. As Itachi had yet to correct Kisame's instructions, Hinata realized with a sinking feeling that they actually expected her to complete this assignment. And unless she wanted to whole mountain to collapse on her, Hinata's usually style of destruction was completely useless.

"I'll get started," she muttered. "Please don't wait up for me. This will take a while."

When Itachi and Kisame exchanged a knowingly look, Hinata had the foreboding notion that she had no idea exactly how long.

When the sky had taken on a dark cast and she had yet to make much of a divot in the side of the mountain, Hinata had a pretty good estimate on the time commitment.

Eternity.

She sank to the ground before the flickering campfire with a sigh. Smudges of dust and dirt covered her pale skin, and her clothes were a ruin of more dust and dirt.

"Not even close, huh?" Kisame snarked with a grin. Itachi remained motionless by the fire, staring intently at his roasted fish. Unlike Kisame's, which Hinata was sure was still wriggling as the shark man took a big bite out of it. Even as she winced with disgust, her stomach grumbled loudly. She looked about hopefully for more rations.

She found none.

"There's more fish in the river," Kisame finally suggested. Hinata bit her lip, face flaming with embarrassment. She'd actually assumed that they would think of her and include her dinner in their catch. Hinata quickly gathered her pack and scurried off to a more secluded part of the river so they wouldn't be further witness to her shame.

The water was cold, and the fish lightning fast. After a good half hour of trying to catch anything at all with numb, tired fingers, Hinata was left in a foul mood. Finally, she was ashamed to admit, she had to use her Byakugan to be able to grasp the shimmering fins.

The trudge back to camp was just as miserable. There was a frigid autumn breeze picking up as the moon rose high over the forest. Looking up at the sky, frozen clear of any clouds, Hinata realized that she'd already turned sixteen. It was on a night like this that Hinata came onto the earth.

"Happy birthday to me," she muttered under her breath. Back in Konoha, as much as the Hyuuga loathed her, they still would have held some sort of celebration for appearances. She would be wearing a _warm_ silk kimono and mouth-watering dishes fresh from the kitchen would surround her. Right about now, everyone would be in the garden, maybe enjoying what should be a refreshing breath of autumn instead of what felt like ice piercing her sopping training clothes. Maybe all the Rookie 9, including Naruto, would be there, giving her 'happy birthday' wishes. Even the rigid structures of the Hyuuga estate seemed softer in moonlight. The vivid image of her childhood home caught into the throes of a party in her honor struck Hinata surprisingly deep, and for the first time, she felt a pang of homesickness.

Shaking her head in disgust, because she knew that this was her choice in her life, Hinata walked back to camp with her chin jutted out stubbornly. However, any confidence she had mustered dissipated at the sight of the forlorn clearing. Itachi and Kisame had already gone to the sleep, with the campfire a low glow of embers that Hinata couldn't hope to cook on.

The loneliness that she tried to push away reared its head with a vengeance. Hinata wasn't so hungry anymore - she simply felt tired. So after letting the fish she'd caught go (they were still wriggling and she thought they deserved another chance to live), Hinata changed into dry clothes and tucked herself into her bedroll.

She closed her eyes to blink.

The sensation of a leaf falling onto her cheek woke her, bringing to her attention the fact that her blink was all the rest she would get for the day. Rubbing away the heavy exhaustion from her eyes, Hinata sat up to find Itachi and Kisame yet again excluding her. They'd just finished up breakfast, leaving little more than crumbs for her before she had to continue her exercise in futility in the form of a mountain.

This time, instead of jumping right in and attacking her chakra left and right, Hinata sat across the river from her mountain and thought carefully. Long ago lessons from Sir floated before her mind, and she slowly traced the outline of the monolith against the thin air of the sky, imagining the stonecutter's calloused fingers leading her own.

'Looks like a misshapen, upside-down bowl,' she mused to herself. While Hinata couldn't choose the placement of the outside shell since it was already shapen, she wasn't constrained by the requirement of a uniform inside. A small smile lifted the corner of her mouth. She can do this.

Hinata entered the clearing in a much better mood. While it would still take her a while, she was beginning get the knack of hanging at odd angles to file away the unwanted inside. The delicious aroma of roast meat wafted to her nose, and Hinata was hungry enough that she paused for a moment to savor the scent of it. Her appetite faded at the sight left for her dinner - the spoils of someone else's meal by the fading fire.

Again, none left for her. Itachi and Kisame were off training elsewhere, so Hinata satiated her grumbling stomach with some late season berries. Disappoint and ashamed for expecting her share, she fell asleep long before they returned.

The next morning, Hinata knew not to expect anything, and it hurt less to wake to an empty campsite. She was learning to lower her expectations and cherish the rare moments.

And it didn't get much better. Hinata and her Akatsuki teammates stayed in for the area for weeks, waiting for Hinata to gouge out her method of carving the new Akatsuki base. In the end, only Sir helped her most, through the lessons he left instilled in her. Only dancing maple leaves in a sunburst of fiery colors celebrated with her. Hinata knew that Pein had not expressly ordered Itachi and Kisame to refrain from helping her, though he did accentuate the fact that this was her own mission. Nonetheless, she'd hoped her teammates would be little kinder after being her partners for two long years.

But that was the way of Akatsuki. Sometimes, they did things that surprised and warmed Hinata.

Sometimes, they didn't.

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"Soupy."

Hinata gave Kisame a long look, almost angered that he'd pulled her out of her flashback. Kisame shrugged, completed at ease in his lanky way.

"Almost time for the meeting." After insuring there was no else around, he passed her the Eagle mask.

"Oh." The nearly feral light to her eyes faded behind thick lashes. 'Thank you' lodged itself in her throat and she swallowed it.

"Come on, it shouldn't take long."

Hinata fell into step with Kisame as they headed for the Hokage's tower. Her head barely cleared his elbows, but Hinata felt no fear, nor camaraderie. He simply was another fellow shinobi, who happened to resemble a past teammate that she once relied on. His aura was still familiar to her, but like that of a neighbor she never really talked to. Surprisingly, Hianta knew she couldn't hate him, because he simply did what he had to survive. Hinata couldn't begrudge him that. She only loathed the fact that she was arrogant enough to expect so much. The shame following the realization of being too assuming was a hard one to bear with dignity.

Nonetheless, Hinata found herself feeling for someone else, that third presence to complete what should be a trio. She didn't dare admit to herself who she was searching. Acknowledging such a name would destroy any sense of reclaimed self-worth.

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Frog and Cat were already in the office with Tsunade when Eagle stuck her head through the door. The Cat paid her no more than a slight nod, while his teammate waved enthusiastically. The Godaime raised an eyebrow, much more than the usual cool greeting she gave the Eagle ANBU.

Kisame stepped into the room, making the spacious office suddenly seem tiny and cramped. The large shark man had that effect on enclosed spaces, though none of the shinobi had it in their pride to even allow a shift of balance to indicate their deference to his enormous stature. Eagle noted that the others weren't as uncomfortable as they should be accepting a new member into their midst, especially one as notorious as Hoshigaki Kisame. It asked the question of exactly how long they have been allies. No more than slightly annoyed at the hidden games they were playing, Eagle assessed each person for further clues, also wondering why the finally member of Team 7 had yet to arrive.

"Hey! Where's Panther-chan?" Frog echoed her thoughts exactly.

The answer to his question came in the form of an embarrassed pink-haired ANBU trying to slip through the door unnoticed. The brilliant shade of her hair, however, made poor camouflage against the rich oak doors, and all eyes drew to her.

"Sakura!" Tsunade barked, no longer minding the carefully kept rules surrounding an ANBU's identity. "Explain why you are tardy."

The kunoichi jumped, and brushed her hair back nervously.

"Sorry, shishou," the Panther apologized. "I was exhausted and woke up late."

To anyone which functional retinas, her alibi was anything but true. Her pink hair was unusually smooth and shiny, and twisted into a fashionable up-do. And her eyes, while dimmed with temporary shame, glittered the way only a woman in love could.

'I thought she loved Sasuke,' was the simultaneous thought running through everyone's minds, save for the Cat, whose mind ran as: 'I thought she loved me.' Kisame, who presumably didn't know any of the background between Sakura and Sasuke, simply thought, 'What the hell?'.

Tsunade rolled her eyes, but fortunately opted to finish the meeting before she would chew out her student.

"Okay, let's get to business, chit chat later," she announced in a tone that boded no disobedience. "Firstly, good work on guarding the daimyo's family last week. No one noticed you, and all assassination attempts were foiled in an acceptable manner." Four expressionless masks nodded in eerie unison in reply to her praise.

"Secondly, I am officially adding Hoshigaki Kisame to Team 7 as a probational member starting today. A year from today, he will be re-evaluated, and on the vote of the Council, will be added as a permanent member of Team 7."

Without thought, Eagle's eyes flickered to Kisame's forehead, which remain blue and unmarked. She felt her lip curl in contempt. Kisame's notoriety was just as great, if not greater, than hers. Yet here he was, unmarked and unsealed. Because he was willing to hand over a teammate and some information, Kisame was deemed trustworthy.

The feeling of another's eyes on her turned her thoughts. The Eagle looked up only glance the Cat, who held her own gaze with steady acknowledgment. He knew her thoughts. Eagle wondered what Konoha had done to him, for Cat held the same bitterness that she felt inside. It could only make one question – why would Konoha persecute her own returning members, while waiving the hoops for a stranger who should spare no loyalty?

Realizing that Tsunade was eyeing her carefully, the Eagle buried away her thoughts, allowing only a porcelain coolness to emanate from her posture.

"Now, for the main reason I've called you here." The Godaime leaned forward, resting her elbows on the worn surface of her desk.

"We're going to war."

A burst of hope sped Eagle's heart. She almost couldn't hide it from visibly showing, even through the porcelain mask. Fortunately, she minimized it to a simple quickening of breath, which was far from incriminating, for she could feel Tsunade's eyes on her.

Eagle knew that Tsunade enjoyed her power trips now and then. Nonetheless, it was surprising to see her indulge so blatantly. The blonde woman watched them closely for the reactions everyone tried to hide. It didn't escape the Eagle ANBU that she paid particular attention to her. She had nothing to show her on that aspect, for all ties she might have had were already severed through Konoha's successful efforts. No, it was the prospect of something else that sparked life in her veins.

If she played this correctly, this little pawn just might leave the chessboard undamaged.

No one moved. The silence hugged them all like a dangerous lover, drawing nails along their throats so that even a breath could be drawn wrongly.

Finally, Eagle broke the hold with a small, raspy sigh. All heads jerked her way, shocked that any sound would come from her lips.

"Jiraiya and I are the only seal masters with any allegiance with Konoha." A steep statement, but she need something to shock them. She whispered it, but everyone leaned in to hear.

The Godaime's eyes sharpened – a warning that Eagle chose to ignore.

"Now that Kisame is officially a loyal Konoha nin, the Akatsuki hideouts will read his chakra signature as a traitor's. He won't be able to allow you easy access, even with my conditional help."

Eagle kept the sarcasm in her voice to minimum, although it still leaked out through the way she chose her words, given how Tsunade's eyes narrowed with every new syllable out of her mouth.

"Meaning…" the Hokage prompted. She began drumming her fingers on the desk, an act that confirmed what they both knew: Konoha needed the Chitsuki-hime. Anything else wasn't really an option.

The Eagle took a deep breath and continued, metaphorically leaping into what could be her death or her freedom.

"Meaning," she said softly, as if her words would break if she mouthed them too loudly, "if I help you take down the Akatsuki, I want to be allowed to sever myself from the ninja world."

"Absolutely not," Tsunade snapped. The others looked mildly puzzled, but the Hokage knew exactly what the Eagle was referring to. The Frog had his hand raised, sloppily forming the seal for subduing her in confusion. Eagle cut him off by brutally pressing forward, ignoring the rising twinges of agony.

"I'll sever my own chakra coils if that's what it takes. The only choice you have is when. And the seal won't stop me."

The firmness in the Eagle's voice made Tsunade pause, and confusion bled into her light eyes.

"Everything?" she asked, with dawning disbelief. "But, how can you live, with your chakra cut away from you?"

The Eagle rolled her eyes at the change of tactics from the Hokage. While others could accept this motherly concern, this kind of warmth was a type that the Eagle had learned long ago to lock away into her heart and allow no one else to dilute the memory of it.

"How do you think I live in a village where everyone keeps my own secrets cut away from me?"

Only silence had an answer for her. Eagle took the time to remove her mask, setting it with a heavy clack on the polished wood of the Hokage's desk. Tears gathered in her eyes from the sheer pain of the seal pounding against her skull.

"I have a few more answers. But don't worry," Hinata assured with a wry smile. "I have just as much reason to hate the Akatsuki as I do Konoha. But fortunately for you, Konoha can give me something I really, really want."

The Hokage held up her hand, light brown eyes piercing against the paleness of her skin. Frog released the seal guiltily, sky eyes darkened with pity. Hinata ignored him, head swimming with the rush of a perfect performance. They knew they needed her. They also knew she knew their tricks. And now they also knew that she they had no viable hold over her.

"Akegatano Kaeru," Tsunade said firmly, purposely using Hinata's alias, "I'll only consider even beginning to negotiate this after you've completed your part in this mission. Can we get back to the matter at hand?"

Hinata shook her head and smiled sweetly, refusing to allow Tsunade to dance away from her goal.

"Only if your words are in writing." It was a vindicating experience to watch Tsunade's jaw clench as she reached for a piece of paper.

"Now, are you finished with your fit of temper?" Godaime gritted out as she showed Hinata the signed statements before handing her one of the copies.

"Of course." Hinata bowed lower than required, and then tucked the scroll into her pocket. "After all, I'm the most motivated of us all to complete this mission."

0000000000000000

Hanabi was waiting when Hinata padded silently into the training field.

"You're early," the younger said accusingly as she turned to her sister.

"Don't read too much into it, imounto-san," Hinata muttered as she walked past her. "I had little fondness for the previous company."

Hanabi shrugged one shoulder, wisely neglecting to press Hinata's odd mood. Instead, she trotted after her deeper into the training field. Abruptly, Hinata turned, hands held loosely at her sides.

"Attack," she commanded. Hanabi fluidly flowed into an attack stance mid-step, like water curving around an obstacle. Even Hinata was impressed by the control of her body.

With a blink of an eye, Hanabi was under her elbow, nimble fingers snaking in to shut down her chakra system. Hinata twisted out of the way, tapping Hanabi's arms away from her torso. Just as quickly, Hanabi had shifted to another perceived weakness in Hinata's defense, hand curving in at an odd angle that forced Hinata to block directly. Her arm went numb.

Hinata broke away from their tight bundle of limbs, taking the chance to unlock the simpler chakra channels. She could move her arm, but the chakra flow had been effectively locked away. Truly worthy of the heir of the famed Hyuuga. What about her abilities was lacking for a chuunin rank?

Hinata raised a hand to halt the spar. But before she so much as had chance to breathe, Hanabi pressed forward with a startling savagery. Only purely trained instinct allowed Hinata to bat away her sister's onslaught of attacks.

"Stop!" Hinata commanded. Hanabi did not seem to hear her.

"Stop!" Again, Hanabi continued with a constant brutality that would only kill. An inkling of the problem began to form in Hinata's mind – there was physical control, but this focused wrath was frightening.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Hinata snapped, articulating each syllable with a sharp jab of a seal. Only until her hand was right over Hanabi's jugular did her survival instinct kick in, and presence bled back into her eyes at the realization that Hinata had her beat.

"Hanabi," Hinata gritted out. "What in the world have they been doing to you these years?"

Hanabi's expression, which had been vulnerable for the fraction of second as she realized the proximity of danger, shuttered away to the same cold expression Hinata despised on her father's face.

"Teaching me what you couldn't learn," she replied. Hinata blinked, unaffected by such an old accusation of her abilities. However, what did annoy her was Hanabi's defensiveness.

"Then why are you here?" she asked. "To prove to yourself that Hyuuga Hinata from so many years ago is still weak compared to you?"

Hanabi had the grace to look down in embarrassment.

"I apologize," she finally offered sincerely. "It's been difficult for me to come to terms with my lacking abilities."

The bitterness in her voice hurt Hinata in the memory of personal experience.

"No," Hinata said resolutely in a rare burst of sympathy. This beaten girl before her was perhaps one of the few people who could understand her. It grated her to see her wilted when she should be thriving. "Never lacking in ability, never."

Hanabi regarded her with wide eyes.

"You want to know why I can beat you?" Hinata offered. "You're not 'here' when you're fighting. You're so focused on completing the perfect Soft Hand movement that you're holding back from your actual abilities."

Her little sister looked at her like she was several kunai short a shinobi set.

"You don't let your entire being fight, where every part of you senses for the moves of your opponent."

The Hyuuga heir still had a look of wary confusion. Hinata sighed and closed her eyes, making sure to let Hinabi see that she'd shut off her Byakugan.

"Strike. Without chakra."

Hinata held her stance loosely, deceptively at ease. The hairs on her neck stood at attention, straining for the movement of the air around her. Her ears seemed to tense, listening for even the slightest shuffle of noise. Her muscles bunched, ready for the instant of attack

An odd crinkle – Hinata's brow furrowed – _no, that's the wind_. A absence of sound alerted her – _there!_ – Hinata moved before the shift of wind around her even reacted. The small _woosh_ of a small air vacuum formed by Hanabi's moving fist passed. The other girl had darted back, out of Hinata's immediate range.

The hint of a breeze caressed her cheek – _that wasn't Hanabi…where was she?_ - and Hinata frowned at the heartbreaking familiarity of her position.

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She was, it seems, always seeking.

Darkness was around her like a cloak, only this one held no embrace of any warmth. Cold sweat trickled down her brow like the long caress of a cold claw.

Where is he?

She knew that Itachi was somewhere near her, for that was the point of the exercise, and the blindfold sat across her eyes with the decided weight of her own choice. But for a girl who fought relying on a sight-based bloodline like the Byakugan, the darkness was damning. The panic that wavered in the back of her throat threatened to blot out any sense (common or physical).

A slight push of air disturbed the ends of her bangs and she fumbled for a clumsy block. His hand deliberately touched the side of her neck before retreating, a clear indication that she had died once. She reset her stance, waiting, again, to be attacked.

Another brush of movement. This time, her ears warned her, and she turned. A tap along her left ribs made her jump up with a squeal. She was ticklish.

"Focus," he reminded her. The fact that he even spoke at all made Hinata wither. How undignified could she get?

But one warning was all she needed. With a small sigh, Hinata closed her eyes, instead of trying to see through the blindfold with the power of her determination. Her fingertips tingled with the sensitivity of focus, until her very heartbeat seem to throb along her skin.

She couldn't say which sense alerted her, but she felt movement.

Her hands moved automatically.

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Hinata brushed her sister's swipe away with an easy hand.

"Easy," she commented, opening her eyes. The unsubtle mockery made her sister's pale cheeks flush, but Hinata didn't allow her much time to stew over the jab.

"In an one-on-one fight to the death, who you think will win: an Academy brat without any weapons or an enraged dog?"

"Eh?"

Hanabi threw her a strange look, or five.

"Just answer me."

"The dog."

"Why?"

Hanabi shrugged, clearly unhappy to be humoring the inane conversation of someone who had managed to defeat her.

"I don't know, maybe because the dog can maul your face?" she shot back sarcastically, her mouth twisted into a knot of disgust, for a Hyuuga anyways.

"Why?"

Hanabi's face crinkled further.

Hinata hummed with amusement. For all her troubles that she was caught in, she still found teasing her little sister inexplicably fun. No wonder siblings squabbled – it was surprisingly stress relieving.

"Because it has teeth?" Hanabi spat. She was practically spitting in fury, though those who did not known her would only perceive a slight frown. Hinata had the strange urge to giggle. No wonder Copy Nin Kakashi was always giggling like a demented schoolgirl when he was riling up the people around him.

"And Academy brats don't? At least not the normal, non-prodigy ones?" A stray thought occurred to her that Itachi wouldn't have had all his teeth when he became genin. Even as a wave of dark and dirty emotions surged underneath the thought, Hinata felt her lips twist to fight a smile. It also helped that Hanabi appeared like she was ready to strangle her.

"Yes, they also have teeth," Hanabi replied slowly, like she was explaining something to a very slow child that had been dropped on her head numerous times.

"Why can't the Academy brat fight the same way?" Hanabi frowned, still largely confused over this line of questioning. The elder sister looked at the younger carefully.

"What was your first reaction to my suggestion? What's stopping you?" Hinata nudged.

"Because that would be so uncivilized…" Hanabi trailed off as she realized that was exactly Hinata's point.

"I think you've forgotten, dear sister, that we are ninja," Hinata explained. "Off the battlefield, we can play all the political games we want, wear all the masks we want, and hold back all we want, but it comes down to the fact that we are tools. So when we're given a mission, there is no point to hold back without a reason, simply because you feel like it. A half-hearted attack, even if it is skilled, is still that: a half-assed swipe to just survive this fight."

The hardening of Hanabi's mouth told Hinata that she was beginning to reject her words. The elder sister sighed, and placed it in a blunter way.

"You shouldn't overestimate your worst effort, nor should you fear the limitations you haven't even reached."

"What?"

Well, the outrage in Hanabi's eyes was certainly a step forward.

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AN: Okay, so I lied. I tried to go back and tie up some loose ends before the big battle and the loose ends turned around and ate me. In fact, these are only Airyo's disembodied hands typing this. So there will be at least one more chapter before the epilogue


	21. SCROLL 21: Threehundred and fiftynine

Come Full Circle

By Airyo

AN: Funny thing. For this chapter, I listened almost exclusively to one song: Hanabi by Ayumi Hamasaki. I looked up the lyrics later and it turns out that they fit surprisingly well for most of the second arc. This was not intentional, but now you have your recommended reading song. Warning: I am one those people who prefers pretty instrumentals to accompany all the destruction and chaos.

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SCROLL 21: Three-hundred and fifty-nine

Hinata fell into an odd juxtaposition of schedules. Mornings were filled with the hectic details of preparation for the attack on the Akatsuki. Afternoons were spent lazing about and poking fun at Hanabi as she pored over seals.

"I don't understand!" Hanabi was growling as she kicked sand onto her latest failed attempt at a storage seal. "How is something stupid like this supposed to help me fight?"

"For one thing," Hinata couldn't help but quip, "they teach patience."

The younger girl just shot her another glare before pouncing back on her seals with renewed vigor. Hinata couldn't help but smile. Somehow, even bitter old kunoichi can liven up when torturing younger siblings. Hanabi had relaxed around her surprisingly fast, quickly reverting to the bratty little thing she used to be now that she was sated with the promise of getting stronger.

"Do you need me to show you t-"

"NO!"

"-he use in a spar?"

Hanabi immediately perked up at the magic word.

"Spar?" Hinata nodded, vaulting to her feet from her comfortable spot in the shade.

"Give me a moment and I'll even let you close my tenketsus."

"All of them?" Hanabi sneered. "Don't mock me. My taijutsu is perfection." Hinata calmly drew a seal on her arm with a mix of ink and her blood, her hands glowing with chakra.

"I know it is. That's why I'm doing this." She blew on her arm until her lines were dry. "Okay, close me. Then we can spar."

Hanabi didn't spare a second before pulling off a perfect 64 Hands of Hakke. Hinata gasped under the harsh impacts, reeling as she fought to maintain her balance. Even as her littler sister stepped back, Hinata felt the rising numbness in her chakra coils.

"Remember, stop when I say stop. I'm just proving a point," Hinata warned. Hanabi nodded eagerly.

"Begin."

Hanabi started for the side, instead of charging in headfirst. She was learning. Hinata sloppily parried the sharp jabs. If felt like her entire body had fallen asleep as she stumbled about. She made a note to train more without chakra enhancements.

When her body began to burn from the lack of chakra, Hinata leaped away from Hanabi, taking the chance to bite her thumb and smear blood down her sealed arm. Violet chakra burst into her hands, just enough for a mild explosion to throw Hanabi on her rear.

"We can stop," Hinata called a bit redundantly. Hanabi snarled as smoke curled up from the ends of her hair, but she obeyed.

"You could have just told me how useful stored chakra is," the younger girl snapped as she patted her singed hair for lingering flames.

"I could have," Hinata agreed easily. "But it wouldn't have been as fun."

A snicker broke through the training area. Hinata tried to activate her Byakugan before remembering that her tenketsus were still closed. Hanabi, oddly, did not seem surprised.

"Sorry, Kaeru-chan, Hanabi-chan," Naruto said with a laugh as he dropped down from the high branches of a tree. "I had to find out about the storage seal mystery."

"Why does he know we're here?" Hinata asked Hanabi suspiciously.

"Hanabi-chan told me," the blond offered cheerfully. "You're very nice to your little sister, but you shouldn't tire yourself out."

"Tire myself out," Hinata mimicked sarcastically as she looked at said little sister with narrowed eyes.

"I needed more sparring partners," Hanabi replied with a haughty sniff. "All you do is teach me stupid seals. Even I need a break."

"But Naruto?" Hinata had to ask.

"He's the only one who doesn't give advice." Hinata could understand that. Anyone else who would be willing to help spar would only judge Hanabi and regale her with useless tips. She just shook her head in defeat.

Naruto just laughed too loudly and scratched the back of his head.

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Some hours later, after Hanabi had just limped home, Naruto and Hinata decided to head over to Ichiraku's for a late snack. Strangely, Naruto didn't immediately dive into ramen heaven when they were served. He stared into his bowl for a moment before turning to Hinata resolutely.

"Hinata-chan, why do you hate Konoha so much?" It was hard to look into Naruto's eyes when he was being so serious. He had actually put up a privacy jutsu. Hinata cupped her hands around her bowl, taking in the warmth that burned her cold fingers. It was like being Naruto. Sometimes, it was hard not to take in his obnoxious radiance and actually want to shine with him.

"Are you sure you want to ask me that?" she asked.

"I love Konoha, even for her faults." It was also hard to look at him when he was being so damn sincere. Hinata felt ashamed as she remembered exactly how the villagers treated Naruto. These same people had regarded her as solid gold. She almost wanted to be proven wrong by Konoha, just to see the reason for Naruto's unwavering loyalty.

"Does Konoha ever think of her soldiers?" she asked. "When you and I are deemed useful, we are the very stars. When we weren't..."

"There were still _people _who loved us," Naruto finished for her.

"People or ninja?" she countered.

"People. Humans," he emphasized. "who are caught between what is best and what is right. Who make mistakes. Who can learn from them."

She shook her head.

"It's easy to be dazzled by the beauty of humanity when you put it that way," Hinata said. "Not everything is forgivable."

"Specifically what?" Naruto demanded. "What has Konoha, or any of us, have done that is so hateful?"

"Don't judge me by your standards for yourself," Hinata sneered. "You might be able to naively forgive and forget, and love and be loved by sheer determination. I am not so strong. I can only be betrayed so many times before I must protect myself." Naruto didn't reply immediately, choosing instead to study her with steady blue eyes.

"Your ramen is getting cold," she remarked. To mark her point, Hinata took a rudely loud slurp of her own. He obediently took a small mouthful and swallowed.

"How did I betray you?"

Hinata had not expected him to ask her this. She froze, mouth pursing as she weighed her responses. Every accusation sounded so stupid when condensed into words. She cursed herself for still caring what he thought.

"Tell me, how quickly did you forgive Sasuke when he returned?" He frowned at the turn of topics. Hinata pressed on. "Just answer my question - I have a point to make."

To her surprise, Naruto did not burst into a speech about loyalty and love, with rays of determination and optimism shooting out of his eyes. His shoulders drooped, and his eyes reflected the full brunt of his difficult life.

"I haven't completely forgiven him yet."

Hinata just stared at him blankly, unsure if she could listen to her ears.

"He betrayed everything I believed in when he left. I can't just say 'Good job, bro!' welcome him back like that. Did you think I let him off easy? Especially after you delivered him to us against his will?"

He knew about her involvement? Naruto was sticking explosion seal after explosion seal on her. Hinata shook her head, as if to clear the cobwebs in her mind.

"Of course I knew," Naruto explained at her flabbergasted look. "Sasuke told us as when his jaw healed -"

"His jaw was broken?" Hinata did not remember Sasuke being so badly injured.

"I might have punched him a little," he admitted in a sheepish way that gave Hinata the idea that "a little" was a blatant understatement.

"That bad?" she asked with a small snicker. Sasuke had needed a sound beating, though she had felt odd pummeling someone unconscious and made do with leaving him in an uncomfortable position at Konoha's gate.

"That bad. Kicking his ass helped a lot." Naruto was smiling at her tentatively, prompting her to immediately wipe away her own smile.

"Well, I didn't expect Sasuke to be so open about it."

"I think he felt that he owed it to you."

"Owed it to me?" Hinata repeated derisively. A small part of her hurt with the realization that Konoha waited six years to even bother with her.

"Sasuke thought your situation was similar to his. It took a while for Jiraiya a few months to make the connection between shy Hyuuga Hinata and the ruthless Chitsuki-hime." That was still over half a decade. She brutally shoved the sensation to the back of her mind, preoccupying herself with another odd fact.

"Sasuke didn't know that I was Chitsuki-hime," she challenged. It had been real shock on his face when he saw her during the battle of her capture.

"Your identity was classified. His clearance wasn't high enough. Only Tsunade-baba, Ero-sennin, Sakura, and I were allowed to know." He stopped speaking, letting Hinata think through his words. What he said absolved Sasuke, even if he had been under the delusion that he'd been helping her by revealing that she was still alive. But that didn't excuse anyone else.

"So that whole show at my grave with Team 10 was just a show?" she snarled.

"NO." Naruto objected so forcefully she fell silent. "Don't you dare piss on your genin team that way! That was not a show for them; that was the only way they could make sense of all the shit you put them through."

"You could have stopped that," she snapped back defensively. The pain of being abandoned was welling back like old pus. "The four of you knew I was out there." She slapped her money on the counter and pushed back to leave.

"Dammit! Come back here!" Naruto shouted as he hurriedly paid for his own meal before running after her. She shrugged him off when he tried to grab her wrist.

"Don't make me hurt you," Hinata warned.

"What did you mean by that? You didn't want to be brought back here."

"No, I did not," she answered unhelpfully. Naruto continued following her doggedly, waiting for her to explain. Her feet led them to Training Ground 3, where Hinata stopped in front of one of the training posts. She stared at the dark shape in front of her, and then blasted it to wood shavings.

"I am powerful," Hinata stated, her voice bitingly clear even with her back turned to Naruto. "I was a part of the most powerful organization of missing-nin known to the world. I've mastered seals, enough to ruin Orochimaru's cursed seal and enough to weaken my family's Soft Hand style. I was the teammate of the notorious Uchiha" – here her throat tightened her words into a growl – "Itachi. I defied every fucking bastard that thought I was a failure of a ninja."

"I know –"

"Shut up!" Hinata barked as she whirled to face him. "You want to know why I asked about Sasuke? You want to know how you betrayed me?" Her shoulders were shaking as she clenched her fists to her thighs. "I admired your spirit, when you so bravely faced a village that hated and sabotaged you every step of the way. You had everything against you and yet you thrived. I had everything, yet I couldn't even pass a simple Chuunin test." She deflated as she spoke. The sore memories had siphoned away her fury.

"Hi—"

"I'm not finished," Hinata said tiredly. Naruto closed his mouth. She unclenched her fists, staring at the faint shapes of the calluses on her knuckles in the moonlight.

"You were perfect, Uzumaki Naruto," she murmured. "I believed I could change when I watched you." Her pale irises shifted to refocus on him as her expression changed to one of chilly detachment.

"And I thought that you, of all people, could be on my side. That you might understand my choices. But it turns out that you're just like any other ninja of power – you rule by force. It was so easy to take Sasuke in when he's a genius, isn't it? I bet it was even easier to accept Itachi back into your ranks! But Hinata wasn't even worth a second glance until she was good enough to make it into the Bingo Book. I had hoped that I wasn't just a pawn to you." She watched as his eyes darted to her forehead.

"But Tsunade-baba ordered it."

"And you followed it. Kami-sama, I can't believe I tried so hard to save you."

"Save me?" She gave him a flat look.

"Gaara decided to magically protect his soul himself when they were extracting the One-Tail," Hinata said sarcastically. Naruto looked mildly cowed by this revelation. He remained silent for several moments before speaking replying.

"We delayed the Council's order as long as we could after they found out the Chitsuki-hime was from Konoha. They informed Hiashi when we captured you."

"The Council wasn't wrong."

"No, we were. I'm sorry. We should have worked harder to keep the Council from finding out about you." Hinata blinked at this ready confession as Naruto continued. "Ero-sennin found you less than a year after Sasuke was returned. He reported that you were actually thriving, even happy. Itachi and Kisame treated you better than the Hyuugas ever did. Ero-sennin even suspected that they might have intentionally let him spy on you. I thought the best thing for you for was to let you be."

Hinata stared at the blonde.

"You're lying," she hissed as tears filled her eyes. The world blurred. "You are lying. While you were spinning your fables, did you forget that I left to become a part of the Akatsuki? The organization that aims to _rip out your soul_ for the Nine-tails? And how is sealing me the "best" for me?"

"You were trying to save me," Naruto reminded gently. "And the Council would have sealed you to someone far more cruel."

"You didn't know that," she gritted out. She ground her teeth in the effort to hold back her sobs. They had given her six years of freedom.

"If I can believe in Sasuke and Gaara, why can't I believe in you?"

Six years. Half a lifetime, when she had first run away. And she repaid it with hatred.

"Why can't you?" Hinata repeated, with a sob interrupting her chuckle.

"I'll admit, I did doubt you for a while when you first came here, after attacking my friends. But you are a good person, Hinata."

"Kaeru," she correctly half-heartedly.

It was impossible not to take in Naruto's obnoxious warmth. He was the sun to her moon, and even now, he shone for her.

She reached towards him, and he stepped forward hesitantly.

"Naruto…"

_CRACK!_

The blonde toppled back onto his butt with a yelp, clutching his face in shock. Hinata stood over him, tears still running down her face. She was smiling brilliantly.

"…thank you, for everything." she finished truthfully. Then, smirking slightly, Hinata massaged her sore knuckles. "And you were right about forgiveness. It get easier after you break the offender's jaw."

"And that's how you broke his jaw?" Hanabi crowed with delight after Hinata had relayed an edited version of the events a few days later. Hinata nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable at her little sister's undiluted joy (for a Hyuuga) when the owner of said injury was sitting right next to them.

"I think I deserved it. Sakura-chan certainly agrees since she only healed it enough so I can talk," Naruto said good-naturedly, his voice muffled by the swath of gauze around his face. Hanabi just gave him a strange look that resembled a mixture of the classic you're-an-idiot look and I'm-not-sure-if-I-should-be-impressed look.

"At least he's accepting his punishment like a good boy," the younger Hyuuga said condescendingly.

"You realize that I can break yours, and we'll have a matching set," Naruto grumbled.

"You wouldn't dare. My big sister will blow you up," Hanabi sniffed smugly. Hinata considered withdrawing her protection, but Hanabi had come such a long way in accepting her own strengths that Hinata only nodded in agreement.

"I've been working on some new seals that uses the victims own chakra to detonate. The stronger the person, the bigger the explosion," she added. Naruto glanced down at his bellybutton and gulped. Hinata brushed back her bangs and slid to her feet.

"Hanabi," she said. "Let's spar again."

Naruto stood, eyes suddenly intent as he stared at her.

"Kaeru-chan. Your seal?" he said questioningly. Hinata patted her forehead with a sinking realization that she'd forgotten to cover it today. Her seal had been gradually fading, thanks to Kankoro's help with his chakra strings. It'd been more difficult to transfer a living seal to an inanimate object like wood.

"It won't be gone until well after the attack," she assured Naruto defensively. The blonde shrugged easily.

"About time," he commented. "We actually only hoped for six months, tops."

"What?"

"We thought you'd have a special hatred towards the Caged Bird Seal, given your history. I thought maybe, by now, you wouldn't hate Konoha so much." Naruto gave a sheepish grin, looking slightly sad.

Hinata, for the first time in a long while, was speechless.

00000000

A few days later, the Godaime summoned Hinata to her office.

"Hokage-sama," she greeted with a curt bow. While Naruto's words had helped soften her regard of Tsunade, she had still played Hinata for a fool.

"Kaeru-san," the Hokage replied just as cordially. "You are well?" She wasn't asking about Hinata's feelings.

"My wounds are completely healed – I'm ready for the attack." Tsunade nodded, lacing her fingers under her chin.

"Good. I brought you hear to speak about just that. I saw the formations you helped Intelligence hash out." She gestured to the scroll spread out over her desk. Hinata nodded warily, waiting for Tsunade drop whatever bad news she had.

"I'm afraid I must forbid you from confronting Uchiha Itachi." Hinata frowned, though she remained silent to wait for an explanation.

"It's for your own good," Godaime added, looking like she was developing a headache. Hinata had no doubt that Naruto had already parroted their entire conversation to Tsunade.

"How so?"

"It's clear to anyone you have a close relationship with Itachi. You'll have conflicting interests."

"So would Kisame. And I would have a better idea of his fighting style than another ninja." Hinata looked pointedly at the triangle labeled with the shark-man's name, which was in the cluster around the square with Itachi's name.

"Their relationship was different." Tsunade pinned Hinata with a hard look, daring her to counter with a lie.

"Itachi trained me," Hinata finally replied. Naruto, and even Konoha, she could begin to forgive. But she had trusted Itachi exclusively, and he sold her out to Konoha for a possible haven. She needed to fight him.

"And he would know exactly how to defeat you."

"I've improved in the past year," Hinata replied calmly, but firmly. Tsunade reached into her desk and pulled out a sake jug. After a long swig, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before turning back to Hinata.

"Kae—no. Hinata. Can you really pretend not to know? From all accounts, it's clear that Pein has taken possession of him. That thing out there is not Itachi anymore."

Hinata looked down, unable to fight when faced with such an ugly truth.

"There are still elements of him left," she finally said softly. "I've done it with Gaara – maybe I can do it for-."

"My order remains the same," Tsunade said harshly. "Especially after hearing you talk like that. Pein will use any little soft spot for the original against you. Understood?" Hinata took in a breath to speak.

"Even with our agreement, you are still a ninja of Konoha until at least after the demise of Akaktsuki. You are not to confront the body that was Uchiha Itachi, understood?" Tsunade cut her off. Hinata let out a breath, and nodded.

"Understood, Hokage-sama." She didn't wait to be dismissed.

00000000000

Just days before the scheduled attack, Hinata dreamed of him.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

Hinata looked down and hugged herself, doing everything she could simply not to break. It was the time he'd visited her in phantom form at the hospital when she'd first been captured. One of the few pure, sweet memories she had. She'd struggled for a long time not to remember this one.

"Go away. You're not real," her dream-self said. Hinata echoed the sentiment. It was easier to push Him aside when she was apathetic.

"Please..." she murmured. "Just go awa-"

"Hinata, look at me."

She made a sob of a gasp. His voice was beautiful in hindsight. Unlike the crude not-Him that unlocked her memory seal. She needed to disregard him. All her precious memories, if she wanted to break away from him.

"Need I repeat myself?" he was scolding. "The Akatsuki does not give up what belongs to it."

And then, so softly that she couldn't quite tell whether it was real or not, came his next three words.

"Nor do I."

But Hinata did, and she couldn't help the tears that welled in her eyes. She relived that burst of joy at his words, the shy warmth as he kissed her, the vast yearning after he was gone.

Then she recalled that he was already gone. Pein had replaced him.

Hinata awoke trembling.

0000000000

The attack squads reached the Akatsuki hideout just as the sun began to rise. Team 7 perched on a tree overlooking the location of the hidden entrance, alert for the signal. Hinata unfurled her seal scroll, poised to draw blood from her thumb. The corresponding seal had already dried on the rock face of the lair.

The call of a mourning dove sounded three times, long-short-long. Hinata bit down hard and smeared the mess of crimson across the entire surface of the scroll as her other hand flipped through a blur of hand seals. The rock barrier crumpled into pebbles with a cacophony of grinding stone. When the dust had cleared, 10 squads of Konoha and Sand ninja formed a semi-circle around the single Akatsuki who had appeared

"Deidara!" Hinata recognized. But this Deidara had shocking orange hair and piercings lining his eyebrows. He summoned his giant bird with a wave of his hand and leaped on top of it. He easily evaded the multiple jutsus several ninjas shot at him, and even returning the favor with enormous spider bombs. Sakura jumped into the fray, searching for the already injured. The rest of her team was forced to follow when one of the spider bombs scurried up their tree, detonating seconds later.

Hinata discarded her used scroll as she fell into a roll from the force of the blast. Taking a second to slip out another seal scroll, she drew a line of blood down it to activate it. Gaara's sand was ready when she charged directly for Non-Deidara, forming steps for her to dart up to his bird. At the last moment, she tossed the scroll at him and jumped back, barely escaping the fluttering clay doves. The scroll careened through the air haphazardly to wrap around the flying bird's neck. It glowed menacingly, sucking out enough chakra to make the bird falter for a moment.

It was enough. Gaara's sand rushed in with vengeance, crushing one of the bird's wings. Non-Deidara flipped off his dying steed, only to be met with Kakashi's Chidori. A plume of smoke engulfed them as Non-Deidara returned the greeting with another bomb. Several squads moved to support the Copy-Nin, disappearing into the cloud.

Hinata performed the customary seal for her Byakugan as three more cloaked figures emerged from the hideout entrance. She recognized the dark shapes – none of them were Itachi. Good. It was easier to forget him when she was fighting. Hinata pulled out one of the larger scrolls while the other ninja distracted what looked like Kakuzu, Hidan, and Zetsu. She flicked away the new scab on her thumb, letting new blood well up, and threw her scroll into the air. It unfurled like a long ribbon against the dawn sky and Hinata followed, drawing her hand down the neat rows of ink. She hit the ground running, the length of the activated scroll now tangled around her glowing arms. Sakura and Sasuke flanked her, gathered the chakra for their own attacks. Naruto joined them moments later, directly behind Hinata.

With a grunt of effort, she hurled out her attack in three concentrated blasts of chakra as she let herself fall to the ground. Her teammates smoothly blended into the shadow of her attack, with Naruto jumping smoothly over her. The squads distracting the Akatsuki parted for Team 7 smoothly. Hinata to watched the missing-nin's bodies jerk with the double-onslaught. While nothing more than very concentrated chakra that took her days to amass, her attack had been infused with enough killer intent that even they should pause.

If they were still themselves.

Hinata watched as they shrugged off the chakra as if they were small annoyances. Non-Hidan entrapped Naruto by his blood even as Non-Kakuzu blasted Sasuke with one of his own attacks. Non-Zetsu had surrounded Sakura with his spore attack and she cried out as her meager chakra was sucked right out of her. Hinata struggled to get back on her feet, limbs still weak from expelling so much chakra.

"Soupy, take a break." Kisame carried her away from the thick of battle. She tried not to notice how gently he handled her even as he rushed.

"Sakura," she panted out.

"Already on it." He disappeared into the swirl of battle.

Hinata fumbled for a soldier pill, her fingers shaking with the effort. A nearby explosion shook her balance, and the soldier pill slipped from her fingers. Hissing with frustration, she dug in her pack for another and shoved into her mouth gracelessly. The bitterness curdled her tongue as she felt new chakra lick her coils. Team 7 was still holding on, with the help of the rest of the squads. She took out another scroll.

"Hina-chan, how lovely of you to show up."

Hinata whirled around with a snarl. Non-Itachi smirked at her with too many teeth. She never how much she hated orange on a person until now. Her scroll was unrolled so quickly it seemed to float before her as Hinata activated it. Violet chakra swathed her hands as she attacked, having just decided to disregard the Hokage's orders.

He swatted her away like a fly, unaffected by her jutsu.

Hinata crashed to the ground, bouncing and rolling helplessly to slide to a stop several meters away. She panted with effort as she forced herself to leap to her feet. It took her precious seconds to reorient herself. Her ponytail had come loose, and her hair stuck to her sweaty face, hindering her sight. Just as she could refocus her eyes, Non-Itachi teleported right in front of her.

"I've missed you," he purred as he kicked her in the back. Hinata fought to breathe as the air passed by her too quickly when she was sent straight upwards. Non-Itachi reappeared next to her, with a hard elbow to the gut that brought her crashing back down toward the earth. Moments before she hit the ground, Non-Itachi hovered before her, Mangekyo Sharigan swirling in her vision.

Caught in a cruel cycle of their last meeting, Hinata was incapable to minimizing the damage of her impact with unforgiving rock. Unfortunately, she did not pass out, and when his genjutsu released her, she awoke to only more pain. He stood over her, a demonic smile on his face.

"You're…" she gritted out through the blood gurgling at the back of her throat, "not…Itachi." He threw his head back and laughed. Good. Amusement gave her time to recover. It was hard to breathe with half of her body under a layer of rubble, but it hid her furtive movements. She slowly flexed each finger as she reached for her seal scrolls pouch, relieved to find only one broken.

"Not quite, Hina-chan. I'm still fighting." She thought heard real Itachi.

"What do you mean by that?" she sneered even as she forced her hands to form the proper seals. He knelt over her, resting one hand over her throat. He squeezed, tightening his grip in a maddeningly gradual way, as he leaned over to whisper to her lips.

"It means what it means. But I will win." That was the fake.

"No, you won't." Hinata lunged up and bite down hard on his nose. As he stumbled back in surprise, she rendered the stones holding her down to dust and wrapped two scrolls around his right arm in one swift movement. One of them was a version of the seal she'd originally designed for Naruto. The other, her strongest explosion seal.

She activated both.

The force of the explosion blew Non-Itachi back. He landed in a crumpled pile. Hope pushed her forward when sheer will failed her. If he was unconscious…

"HINATA!"

She turned to see a battered Naruto supported by an equally beaten Sasuke. They limped to her, an identical triumphant glint in their eyes. Behind them, she saw Kisame gently carrying a weak, but living, Sakura. That was all she needed to see to know that Akatsuki had fallen.

"We did it! We got the bastard Pein!" Naruto was laughing as he threw up an arm, only to accidentally knock both himself and Sasuke off balance.

"DOBE!"

They toppled over with a crash. Hinata's lips twisted in effort not to giggle at the ridiculous pile of limbs of two Konoha's most powerful ninja. But the need to check back on Non-Itach pressed in the back of her mind. She glanced back to where he had landed…

There was no one there.

"Maybe not," she choked out.

"Hinata?" She knew her face had collapsed under the force of her pain. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. A small part of her had hoped all this time, that there was something left.

"Itachi's truly gone," she whispered. "If…If he was still in there, my seal would have expelled Pein. The separation would have knocked him out." Her legs gave out under her and she fell to the ground, hands covering her face to try to hide her grief in vain.

She'd failed to save him.

Pein was still out there.

000000000000

Two months later…

"Are you sure?" Naruto and Hanabi stood over Hinata as she packed her things. Her forehead protector and ANBU uniform lay conspicuously on a chair.

"I've already signed the papers," Hinata said firmly as she zipped her backpack. "I've kept my promises, so the Godaime must keep hers."

"I can void them just as easily when I become Hokage," Naruto offered.

"If not, I can destroy the evidence," Hanabi added. Hinata smiled sadly at them. She'd purposely chosen a departure time when the people who knew her were occupied elsewhere. Yet, somehow, these two still managed to show up.

"Naruto, thank you for everything. You should concentrate on finding Pein. Hanabi, I've left extensive scrolls on my seals. All you need is some more practice."

"That's not the point!" the younger Hyuuga snapped. It was good to see her this bratty. Childhood befit her little sister.

"Do you still hate Konoha?" Naruto asked stridently. Hinata looked at him and smiled.

"No," she replied. "We all have our goals. But I can't share Konoha's."

"Be a civilian here," Hanabi suggested. Hinata shook her head as she hefted her pack onto her back.

"There is nothing for me here."

"What about the Hyuuga?" Hanabi challenged. "Don't you want to change it? Don't you want to help me?"

"I haven't been a Hyuuga for a long while, Hanabi."

"But aren't you still my sister?" Hinata couldn't look her in the eye, and Hanabi pressed her advantage. "Do you want another girl to go through what you went through? Don't you want to banish the Caged Bird Seal? I…I can't do everything by myself!" Hinata touched her bare forehead thoughtfully, but she still resolutely started for the door.

"Hinata-chan, what would you do out there? You signed an agreement of non-competition," Naruto moved to block her way.

"I can –"

"Forget it, Naruto!" Hanabi snarled as she swiped the back of her hand across her cheeks viciously. "She's just running away again. That's what that coward always does when she's faced with a problem. She runs away. From Hyuuga, from a little pressure, from everything. Let her run away to her little hole in some stupid mountain. I don't care anymore! I hope she rots!"

Hinata elbowed her way past Naruto. She stood with her back to the two, fighting to keep back her own emotions.

"You're just a little scaredy-cat!" Hanabi continued, her voice watery. "I wished I never had such a weak sis—"

"Stop gloating, imouto."

"Huh?" Hanabi stopped her tirade intelligently.

"You may have finally won against me, but it doesn't give you the right to gloat." Hinata turned with a small, shy grin. "Naruto, I won't fight for Konoha, but do you think she has room for a seal's specialist?"

She didn't try too hard to dodge their hugs.

00000000000

AN: And, there's only the epilogue left! OMG! Thank you so much to all my readers. You've supported me though the long and arduous (and extremely fun) process of this story, and I'm finally done!

I've essentially done the seamstress's equivalent of stapling the dress together and tying it up with a gigantic red bow to distract everyone. I know I haven't been the best at explaining what the hell is going in my story, but if you have any lingering questions, please review and ask. I'll try to answer them all in the epilogue. Should I include a small recap?

Much love until the next chapter.


	22. Epilogue

Epilogue

Five years later…

The Rokudaime Hokage looked down at the babe in his arms, smiling tenderly as she turned to focus luminous blue eyes on her father.

"Kaeru-hime," he whispered in a serious voice. "You're too beautiful. When all the boys are chasing you, your Daddy's going to beat them all to a pulp. If they still keep coming back, I'll use my awesome Hokage powers and have ANBU assassinate them." His soft threats faded with a pale glare from his wife.

"But don't worry," Naruto continued cooing. "If there is a guy out there even close to being worthy of you, Mommy'll seal him and make sure he's all yours."

She glared again.

"But not before you're sixteen."

Another glare.

"Eighteen," the blonde amended with a nervous smile. As much as he loved her, having the new head of the reformed Hyuuga clan as his wife made even Uzumaki Naruto shiver in his Hokage boots.

Yet another glare.

"Twenty?"

"You're missing the point."

"You're right. Twenty is a bit early. I like thirty."

"Naruto. She's six-months old," Hanabi said with a sigh. She removed her reading glasses and massaged the bridge of her nose.

"Can never prepare too soon," he replied resolutely. She just shook her head. The idiot was famous for being stubborn. Hanabi returned to the letter she'd been reading.

"Kisame sent another scroll. He and Sakura are doing well - they found another lead - though apparently Sasuke keeps bothering them with raven messengers every few hours."

Naruto chuckled as he carried Kaeru over to Hanabi's desk. She gently twirled the babe's downy black hair in between the fingers of her free hand.

"They are searching for Itachi, after all. I wonder when Sasuke'll figure out that I never actually forbade him from the mission when I allowed him to 'monitor the progress'," he mused.

"You'll know when our house is on fire."

"Maybe I should tell him."

"Don't," Hanabi said with a grin. "The damage is worth the show."

Her amusement faded as she returned her eyes to Kisame's letter.

"Should we tell her?" she asked, already knowing the answer. Her sister wouldn't want any news. Hinata had long accepted Itachi's passing, and her anger had died with him. Anything indicating otherwise would only give rise to bad memories.

"No," Hanabi answered for herself. Naruto transferred the gurgling Kaeru to her and she hugged her close. "She's gone through enough."

"Who knew you turned out to be such a big softie," Naruto said softly as he pressed a kiss to her cheek. Hanabi smiled indulgently as she traced a finger along his face.

"Do you want another broken jaw, darling?"

"No," Naruto muttered.

"Good, I'm glad we agree. Now go get Kaeru ready while I finish up my paperwork without the help of your dumb clones."

Naruto dared to press one more, big wet kiss on his wife before running out the door.

00000000000

Every time, Hinata could only wonder how she made the trip the first time. It was hard journey to Rock, even with far superior chakra reserves and frequent breaks. She couldn't help but feel a small pride for her younger self, even if she had been fueled solely by a fearful hysteria.

She slid to a stop when the roofs of Sir's village crested the horizon and walked the rest of the way in a more sedate pace. Sir's house hadn't changed, except for a new wash of paint on the door. Hinata knocked. The sharp, hollow taps hung in the air for a moment before Sir jerked open the door. Much like his residence, little had changed with Sir, save for a few new lines radiating from his eyes. If he were a little grayer, or sicklier, Hinata couldn't tell with all the dust covering him. His enormous eyes scanned her coolly, and then he stepped back to allow her in.

"How long are you staying this time?" Sir asked brusquely as he put the water to boil. He didn't offer a seat, but Hinata took the familiar liberty of her old futon in the corner. She just as quickly jumped back up with a small frown. Another person's clothes were neatly folded there.

"I had planned a week, but I see that you already have company, Sir"

"A new helper – though to call him that would be too generous," Sir grumbled. He laid out a clumsily-cut tea set and Hinata sighed.

"Sir!" she remonstrated. The old man snarled slightly at her tone.

"I am being truthful, you fluttery little chit!" Hinata chuckled, unperturbed by what was practically a term of endearment from Sir. He changed her name from "Child" to "chit" some years back, though Hinata could still not decide if that was a good thing.

"I was talking about the tea set!" she explained. "That was the first passable thing I made – I've asked you to throw it away years ago."

Sir smirked, and his face contorted into an expression that would make lesser ninja cry. "Why? It is a good reminder that there is ever a need for improvement." The young woman shook her head in defeat and retreated to a different subject. She busied herself with seeping the tea.

"Besides, you used to say the same thing of my help. Coming from you, it's a compliment."

"Arrogance is unbecoming," he snapped.

There was a pause as they sipped from the crude cups. This moment was quickly broken when Sir looked through the window at the angle of the sun and slammed down his cup.

"That idiot! He's been out to the quarry for over two hours now! What is he doing over there – digging out the rock with his teeth?"

The mental image of a man gnawing at the ore was an amusing one, and Hinata bit back a laugh.

"I'll go find him. You keep working," she offered. Temporarily soothed by the suggestion, Sir waved her away as he returned, muttering, back to his project.

"He responds to Halfwit," he tossed to her before Hinata slipped out the door. She just sighed.

Hinata's feet lead her down to the quarry with remembered ease. She admired the wide span of red-rust rock that made up only a small portion of the rich deposit. The sun was setting, and the pink light cast a dream-like glow to the place. This was where...

Hinata ruthlessly squashed any thought of Him. This was where her whole life had shifted to revolve from around Uchiha Itachi. And just as quickly, he had expelled her from his world. Hinata forced away the still dull hurt. Now her world revolved around the new Hyuuga clan and Sir. It was a calm and restful existence – a welcome respite after the events shadowing the earlier half of her life.

A shuffling movement caught her attention.

"Halfwit?" she called, feeling utterly ridiculous. She jumped down to the bottom of the pit. "Are you Halfwit?"

The huddled form was a mess of hair and rags. He grunted, but crouched away from her in fear, clutching something to his chest. One of his arms was missing, and the stub hung awkwardly from his shoulder.

"Do you have the ore?" she asked gently. Sir always did seem to have a soft spot for the broken and lost. Had she looked so pitiful? He grunted and pointed at a basket at his feet.

"Oh, good job. Sir's waiting, so we should go." She reached out and grabbed the basket. "Whew! You've got a big load here. Looks like you've picked some good one too." She started up the steep, rough hewn staircase. Halfwit followed.

"So how did a stray like you come to Sir?" she said conversationally as they walked back. "What is your story?" Hinata turned to look at him and stopped. He looked at her. The basket spilled to the ground, creating a cloud of disturbed dust.

"I-itachi?"

0000000000

Hinata sat across from him, at the foot of his hospital bed, and stared.

It really was Itachi. He'd been half-starved, but the past three months on a special diet helped fill in the pits in his cheeks. The same dark eyes, sleek features and noble profile. After she took him back to Konoha and they're hacked away the tangled mass of his hair, it could be no one but him.

But this was a shell. His dark eyes didn't have the knowing intelligence, and his face was slack, bereft of the steely control that characterized him.

If Pein was still there, he'd be trying to kill her. If her seals had worked, he'd be Itachi. Not this hollow doll that mimicked the emptiness in her chest. She reached out slowly, and stroked his cheek. He blinked, but didn't look up to meet her eyes.

This hurt more than when Pein controlled him. At least there had been someone in there.

"You must have been lonely," she said softly.

This was the first time Hinata had gathered the courage to sneak in and visit him. There was still one thing, and one thing only, she could think of to try.

"I really am a coward," she muttered. She collected herself with a few breaths and leaned in to embrace him. He just sat there stiffly.

"Itachi." She licked her lips, heart beating nervously. She pressed a quick kiss to his cheek like a prayer and put her mouth up to his ear. "Fly home."

Nothing happened.

Hinata held his unresponsive form for several moments, letting tears well up in her eyes and trickle down to soak into his hospital gown. The wet spot quickly cooled against her cheek.

"I missed you," she finally let herself whisper too late.

"I know."

Hinata jumped. She leaned back to look at him with wide eyes. Itachi gave her a faintly disapproving look.

"You took longer than anticipated," he said evenly. "I did not enjoy my time as 'Halfwit'. And I do not appreciate the loss of my dominant arm."

"You...you..." Hinata trembled, caught between a confusing mix of anger and joy. Itachi reached up and pressed her head to his chest with his left hand.

"I have been uncertain of very few things in my life," he finally admitted. "I've always found people easy to read...I'm holding you and yet find myself still unsure." His thumb stroked her hair slowly.

"It's not like you to stall," Hinata finally said softly into his shoulder.

"Indeed it isn't. It is your fault that I seem to behave so erratically. Consider it my first payment."

"Payment?" He sighed.

"Are you going to hide from me again?" Hinata struggled out of his embrace, glaring at him.

"I did not hide from you."

"I wandered all the places we've traveled. All the places that had significance. You should have found me within months, Hinata. Months." He sounded bored, but Hinata knew he was angry and disappointed. She curled up on herself.

"I did not hide from you," she reiterated softly. "I hid from myself. I hid from the hurt and the doubt and the loss. I'm sorry." Itachi made slightly noise of annoyance.

"Stop. You do not need to hide when I've found you." He reached out, almost hesitantly, to take her hand. "Forgive me." She knew even the hidden request was difficult for him. Hinata looked him and realized that the hard casing of her heart was cracking, finally.

"I will."

She smiled radiantly at him and he kissed her.

00000

Done.

It's still just sinking in.

Thank you so much for those who stuck it out with me. It's been a bumpy road, but here it is. The last chapter. I wouldn't have made it so far without the support of you all!


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